I will not be silenced anymore, especially not on Beyoncé's internet, the First Lady said. If I allow myself to be silenced, bullied, and insulted, I may be signalling that this kind of conduct is okay, that it's normal.

Being a First Lady, I do not see it as an avenue to be arrogant. First Lady is just another form of public office … I see this opportunity as a call to service not for personal aggrandizement at all.

I have to respect my life, and free expression is part of my life. I can never really silence myself.

Serving as your First Lady is an honor and a privilege...but back when we first came together four years ago, I still had some concerns about this journey we'd begun. While I believed deeply in my husband's vision for this country...and I was certain he would make an extraordinary President...like any mother, I was worried about what it would mean for our girls if he got that chance.

I enjoyed my life as I played the role of first lady to the fullest. I learnt a lot and, through the Freedom Foundation, I was able to help a lot of needy people. When I was the first lady I was able to interact with people at all levels.

When I became First Lady, she was very gracious to me. She was just wonderful about saying, ‘Continue your own work.’ ”

So far in my life, I’ve been a lawyer. I’ve been a vice president at a hospital and the director of a nonprofit that helps young people build meaningful careers. I’ve been a working-class black student at a fancy mostly white college. I’ve been the only woman, the only African American, in all sorts of rooms. I’ve been a bride, a stressed-out new mother, a daughter torn up by grief. And until recently, I was the First Lady of the United States of America — a job that’s not officially a job, but that nonetheless has given me a platform like nothing I could have imagined. It challenged me and humbled me, lifted me up and shrank me down, sometimes all at once. I’m just beginning to process what took place over these last years — from the moment in 2006 when my husband first started talking about running for president to the cold morning this winter when I climbed into a limo with Melania Trump, accompanying her to her husband’s inauguration. It’s been quite a ride.

The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.

I have not permitted my constitutional niceties in the way of my free functioning in public…given frank expression to views concerning administration so often.

More than ever before, Women in position should not remain silent on issues they have the capacity to speak up on. This is most especially related to women in power.

I don't fear being outspoken. The only thing I fear is losing my sense of integrity or losing sight of the values on which I guide my life. So I don't think it's particularly brave or unusual for me to speak out.

I would not even encourage young ones to think that being a first lady is a career. Being first lady is just as well as being a house wife. I wonder why people think that my being a Member of Parliament is a demotion. Is it because I am a woman? Take for instance, people like former vice-president Khumbo Kachali, who is now a Member of Parliament. Can you tell me that this is a demotion? I don’t really care what people will always say about me. I thank God for the promotion.

To me, the role of a first lady, and any powerful woman for that matter, in helping the generation beneath us to come up, is not to stand in the way, it's not to compete, it's to facilitate, it's to provide a bridge.

Even while her husband was Head of State, she was so committed and dedicated to her job as a lawyer that she never left the legal profession. This is very impressive as some other women see the ‘First Ladyship’ as a role of glamour and wanton frivolities.