Meryl Streep. Margaret Thatcher. Oprah. Meet the men behind the women.
Meryl Streep. Margaret Thatcher. Oprah. It takes truly good men to shore up women of such fame, charisma, and monumental power. And after watching one too many First Lady biopics that includes some iteration of the line “she stood solidly behind her husband,” we present a slideshow of the men who were (and still are) happy to stand solidly behind their women.
That said, this is by no means a definitive list. Have more examples to add? Comment below!
(To hide captions, just click ‘hide captions’ at the bottom of the slideshow.)
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Very inspiring story! Great to hear about solid long term relationships like these – so rare these days.
PS Keep on publishing this solid information! It helps the cause of stable relationships and how they can work!
Great examples of wonderful women with strong partnerships / marriages.
According to the Earhart movie, Putman was an extremely understanding fellow who put up with his wife’s infidelities. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors, but some people have seemingly good marriages.
Love the slide show graphics here…and the idea that behind a good woman is a good man!
so. i was genuinely excited to read this article… i liked it it was good you should come home. XD
I’d like to think that among the inhabitants of this magazine – readers and writers both – there is a fair share of guys who fall into this category. What I’d like to suggest; however, is that even for those guys who are not partnered with a woman, they/we also support and stand behind women. Think of the single dad who goes through a divorce with little acrimony and steps up to assume his equal share of the child rearing and support. Sure it benefits him greatly, but also his ex-wife who is not over burdened with this responsibility; which much of the time falls into the woman’s lap. Or think of the man who foregoes his life to take care of an ailing mother, or the young boy who contributes to the household fund with money he gets from an after-school job which he has to take because his own father left he and his mother to fend for themselves. Greatness comes in all shapes and sizes, but is always spellbinding when you are confronted by it.
I am disappointed. In fact so much so that this is the first time I have EVER left a comment, anywhere. I can not disagree more with the inclusion of President Clinton, Mr. Graham and Mr. Conway, all be it for different reasons. The simplest explanation first; it is too early in the relationship between Mr. Conway and Ms Ali to include him among this group of “Good” men. As a man who has/is weathering the storms of life with his wife for nearly two decades I have come to one truth: The jury is still out on whether or not I am a good man (by the way, if I had a vote it would be no, that is why I bookmarked this site). This is not to say that Mr. Conway is NOT a good man, just that 36 months is way too soon to bestow such an honor.
Mr. Graham steadfast support of one of the nation’s most powerful woman is admirable; I doubt my ability to stand so securely beside a woman who cast such a global shadow. Still, on my wedding day, the man who performed the ceremony, just before things started, pulled me aside and said, “The hardest thing in the world to do is be a husband and father….that is why we HAVE to do it if we want to be great”. Now life has taught me that a “good” man can have a bad marriage and can even suffer the pain of divorce, so a “successful” marriage is not absolute. Still there is an exponential difference between standing in the storms of life in a “committed” relationship and in a marriage, even if the latter proves to be more fragile and less reliable than the former. So while Mr. Graham is Oprah’s soul-mate I view their relationship like witnessing a world record in the 100 meter dash…wind-aided: they did it and it is impressive but ineligible for inclusion in the record books.
Finally, Tom Matlack recently wrote that friend described a good man as “as one who finds a way to live a life of congruence, meaning that he is the same guy in public as he is in private, the same guy at work, with his kids, in his marriage, and in his friendships”. The friend also said that being “the same guy” could mean that that man is consistently selfish and self-center both “in public as he is in private”. So while I do not mean to disparage our former president, I do question what conclusion we would draw if we viewed his life thru the prism of congruence. Would we, first off, find him congruent and if so, would that congruence reflex elements of a “good’ man?
I feel I must agree with Mr. White on one count. A successful marriage is not an absolute and it is possible to be a good man in the heated spotlight of a failed marriage.
Also, I disagree with the inclusion of the Clintons. In my mind, Mrs. Clinton’s decision to “stand by her man” was politically motivated. If she’d gone off “as a woman scorned”, her bid for the Senate would have failed and no one would have taken her bid for the presidency seriously. She now holds the office of Secretary of State and has often called on her spouse for assistance in difficult situations such as the release of two journalists in North Korea…something Hillary herself couldn’t accomplish. Hillary is the Oprah of U.S. foreign policy.
This is a small thing in comparison to the worldly and educated comments in the previous comments, but it is real to me. I am married to a military man. His father is a cop, all of his cousins and grandfathers were military. He has a Duke University education and has an interesting job in Washington, DC. He is smart, sexy, charismatic, and very manly. We have been married for 4 years, only two of which we have lived together. We have two more years apart until we can act like married people again. I left to attend veterinary school very far away from him. I would like to say that he graciously accepted this decision, but he did not. We struggle constantly to maintain our life “together” while physically separated. It takes a very strong man to love and accept the complications of an intelligent, independently motivated, head-strong, passionate woman. Sometimes I take that for granted. but when I take a moment to think about it, I am deeply and consciously grateful to have such a man as my partner in life.