In a recent letter to the editor, Makana Hicks presumes to lecture Lt. Gov. Josh Green on how he should regard his wife (“Native Hawaiians aren’t just the ‘host culture,’” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 24). Should Green become governor, the letter contends, Jamie Green will not exist in her own right, but only as a “decorative” side piece fit only to “entertain and serve guests of the governor.”

Hicks goes on to disparage the idea that Jaime Green could be a fully aware Native Hawaiian woman with goals of her own, or possess the will and capacity to act on them as first lady of Hawaii. By inference, that derides and insults every previous first lady as exemplars of a “beads and baubles“ mentality harkening back to territorial days.

The sheer arrogance and shameful ignorance of this is refuted by a brief glance at some of what these remarkable and accomplished women actually achieved. They all reached beyond the anachronistic term with its sexist implications to assert themselves as “first advocates,” transcending Hicks’ stereotypes.

As a registered Army Nurse Corp nurse, Lt. Beatrice Majors Van Vleet met and married Jack Burns at Schofield Barracks in 1931. Never fully recovered from paralysis engendered by an attack of polio that cost her the life of a premature son, she helped run her family’s small Kalama Liquor Store business from her wheelchair as Jack Burns rose from the Honolulu Police Department to become governor in 1962. Displaying the same grit and determination to succeed, she oversaw the initial restoration efforts on a deteriorating Washington Place.

Jean Ariyoshi followed Bea Burns, relentlessly pursuing missing artifacts and documents related to Washington Place, cataloguing a vast historical legacy — an effort capped by opening Washington Place not only as a home for the governor’s family, but to the public with formal tours and docents thanks to her persistence and commitment.

Lynne Waihee brought her experience and devotion as a teacher and administrator as a champion of children’s literacy, touring the state with her “Read to Me” program. She was a founder of the Children’s Museum and the Okinawa Cultural Center. She originated the First Lady’s Outstanding Volunteer Program.

Married to Gov. Ben Cayetano in 1997 at Washington Place, Vicky Cayetano realized that the site as home for governors and their families had reached an ending. Creating the Washington Place Foundation, she raised private funds to build Hale Kia Aina, a separate governor’s residence adjacent to Washington Place allowing for its rehabilitation effort to get under way. Vicky went on to spearhead a spectacularly successful campaign to save the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.

Dawn Ige, also an educator and administrator, created the Ohana Reader Program promoting literacy aimed at young children. She personally oversaw the completion of the Washington Place restoration in celebration of its 175th anniversary this year: A treasure of history fully worthy of Queen Liliuokalani’s legacy, it is now an inspiration for generations to come.

I don’t hesitate to designate my wife, Dr. Nancie Caraway, as a first advocate in the company of all the other outstanding women I’ve cited. She was the driving force behind Hawaii’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, second in the nation to pass. She introduced a “Salon Series” of speakers at Washington Place exploring contemporary issues local and national in scope.

To read the letter writer’s version of Jaime Green in this context, you would not know that she is an accomplished lawyer, a child advocate in the arena of foster care, a volunteer guardian ad-litem for the Hawaii State Judiciary and a member of the board of directors of Hale Kipa, the nonprofit serving at-risk youths.

Rest assured, should Jaime Green become first lady, you may be certain that she would be a first advocate of the first order. Her predecessors stand ready to welcome and support her.

Neil Abercrombie was governor of Hawaii from 2010 to 2014.