WASHINGTON: Jill Biden is no stranger to the glare of the political spotlight. Her husband has been a member of Washington since they were married in 1977, and she was America’s second lady for eight years.
But now that Joe Biden has won the White House, his 69-year-old wife will have a chance to advance the role of first lady in the 21st century, keeping her full-time job as a teacher.
“Most American women have a working life and a family lifeBut first ladies have never been allowed to do it, “said Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University.
“Maybe the However, the time has come when more Americans are comfortable with a first lady who is not on duty in the Casa Blanca 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ”
Of course, Biden has for years been a trusted advisor to her 77-year-old husband, who defeated the incumbent President Donald Trump.
As first lady, she is expected to work on education issues and relaunch Joining Forces, a mission to mobilize military families that she and Michelle Obama began in 2011.
But she is also a teacher, mother, grandmother and the rock that kept Biden going after the tragedy nearly five decades ago.
In 1972, Joe Biden faced the unthinkable: his young wife and daughter were killed in a car accident, and he was left alone to raise his two young children, both injured in the accident.
Get in Jill Jacobs, who was born in 1951 and grew up in the outskirts from Philadelphia His father rose in banking from teller to president, and his mother was a homemaker.
Jill was in the process from divorcing her first husband when she met Biden, a widower who commuted from Delaware to Washington, where he served as a United States Senator.
The couple married in 1977 and she became the “mother” of their children. Hunter and Beau. The Bidens have a daughter, Ashley, who was born in 1981.
While raising his family, Biden also earned two master’s degrees. He would eventually earn a Ph.D. in education and now teaches at Northern Virginia Community College.
Since then, the The couple has been through two failed presidential careers, his eight years as vice president, the death from Beau Biden after a battle with cancer and now a successful campaign in the White House.
“She put us back together,” Biden said in a video shown in August during the Democratic National Convention, as she described Jill’s impact on the family marked by tragedy.
“She is so damn tough and loyal.”
Biden assumed thepaperfrom second lady in 2009 when her husband became Barack Obama’s vice president, participating in high-profile events with First Lady Michelle and developing a comfortable style of public speaking.
During her husband’s third run for the White House, Biden was one from its most effective and powerful substitutes.
He campaigned tirelessly, crossing the early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire and battlefields like Florida and Michigan in the home stretch, often headlining smaller events.
She introduced her husband as the candidate who best appealed not only to moderate Democrats, but also to independents and Republicans disappointed in Trump.
In March, it was found in thepaperfrom protective at an event in Los Angeles, when she dramatically defended herself from two protesters who pounced on her husband on stage.
“We’re fine,” he said to reassure her.
In his convention speech from a classroom at a Wilmington high school, where he taught English at the In the 1990s, she responded because of her husband’s character, abilities, and heart.
“How can you build a broken family?” she said from Biden’s persistence through adversity, a quality she believes connects him to millions from American families suffering the pandemic, mass layoffs and racial tensions.
” the in the same way you make a whole nation, “he added.” With love and understanding, and with small acts from compassion. With courage. With unshakable faith. ”
Biden, who has fiercely protected her family throughout her husband’s career, has prepared against the attacks against him by Trump and his allies.
Now maybe you are preparing for four years in the White House and a hectic schedule from teach and exercise fromthe East wing.
“If Biden continues to teach, she will change forever the expectations and limitations fromthe post “, Kate Andersen Brower, author from “First women: the Grace and power from The modern first ladies of America, “she told AFP.
“I think it could be challenging, balancing a job and the tremendous work fromthe first lady, but I also think it will broaden our ideas from what the first ladies are capable from,” she said.
Jellison warned that Biden could face a backlash from those who want a more traditional first lady, but she and Brower agreed. the the time has come for a change.
“We will surely have a male presidential spouse one day and I don’t think anyone would expect him to quit his day job,” Brower said.
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