Jill Biden: who is the new first lady of the United States and what is expected of her in office?
Standing in an empty classroom where she taught English in the 1990s, Jill Biden gave an emotional speech at the Democratic Party convention in August after her husband, Joe Biden, was officially named as the presidential candidate for the election. from USA
At the end of his message, the now president-elect Biden appeared on the scene, hugged her and praised her qualities as the future first lady of the United States.
"To all of you across the country, think of your favorite teacher, the one who gave you the confidence to believe in yourself. That's the kind of first lady that Jill Biden will be," said the then-candidate.
Months later, with her husband's victory in the elections, Jill Biden is projected as the new first lady, but she will not be so alien to the position.
Joe Biden was vice president during the administration of Barack Obama, between 2009 and 2017, reason why she was the "second lady" of the United States.
From this position, she promoted educational causes and had privileged access to Michelle Obama, the then first lady. He worked with her on initiatives like "Joining Forces" to help US veterans.
What else do we know about Jill Biden and what can we expect from her job as she accompanies her husband to the White House?
Personal life
Jill Jacobs was born in June 1951 in the state of New Jersey. The eldest of five sisters, she grew up in Willow Grove, a suburb of Philadelphia.
Remarried to her current husband, she had previously been married for five years to former college football player Bill Stevenson.
She met Joe Biden after she lost her first wife and 1-year-old daughter in a car accident in 1972. Her sons Beau and Hunter survived the accident.
Jill says that Joe's brother introduced them in 1975. At that time, he was already a senator from the state of Delaware and she was still in college.
"I was a senior, and I had been dating guys who wore jeans, clogs, and a T-shirt. But he came knocking on the door dressed in a sports coat and loafers, and I thought, 'God, this is never going to work, not even in a million years. 'He was nine years older than me! "Jill said in an interview with Vogue in 2016.
"But we went to see 'A Man and a Woman' at the movies in Philadelphia, and we really got along," he added of the couple's first date.
Jill also said that Joe proposed to her five times before she accepted.
"I couldn't let them [Joe's kids] lose another mother. So I had to be 100% sure," she explained.
The couple married in New York in 1977. Their daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981.
"I think he knows me better than I know myself," Joe Biden said of his wife in an August interview with CBS journalist Rita Braver, a partner of the BBC in the US.
When delivering her message to support her husband's candidacy, Jill Biden spoke about her family and the struggles they have faced.
"I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, she will do for your family what she did for ours: come together and move forward in times of need, fulfill America's promise to all of us," she said during her speech.
But her message didn't just seek to promote her husband. Speaking it from a classroom was a nod to her long career in education and a symbolic gesture of the concerns she would have as the first lady of the United States.
Teacher
Jill Biden, 69, has a bachelor's and two master's degrees, and earned a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007.
The next first lady has spent decades working as a teacher. In the 1980s, she taught English in a psychiatric hospital for teenagers.
Between 1991 and 1993, she taught English at Brandywine Public High School in Delaware. The speech at the Democratic Convention was delivered precisely in what had been her old classroom at this school.
For the next 15 years, Jill Biden taught at Delaware Technical & Community College.
After the triumph of Obama and Biden in 2009, she moved to Washington D.C., but continued to teach English at Northern Virginia Community College.
"Teaching is not what I do. It is what I am," she tweeted before the convention speech.
But her activities during the Obama administration extended well beyond the classroom, as at the same time she taught, she fulfilled her duties as a second lady.
Politics
In this role, he dedicated himself to promoting community colleges (US higher education centers), which he always referred to as "one of the best-kept secrets in the US," according to the House's page. Obama White.
In 2010, she hosted the White House Summit on Community Colleges, which sought to "highlight the role of community colleges in the development of the US workforce."
She was also dedicated to advocating for military families and, together with Michelle Obama, launched the "Joining Forces" initiative to help veterans and their families access educational programs and job resources.
Additionally, in 2012, she published a children's book called "Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops" based on the experience of her granddaughter Natalie, Beau Biden's daughter, of being in a military family.
Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, had been deployed with the National Guard to Iraq in 2008 for a year.
Another of Jill Biden's lines of action has been the fight against breast cancer, even before she was second lady.
In 1993, she founded the Biden Initiative for Breast Health, to raise awareness about early detection after four friends were diagnosed with this cancer, according to the White House.
What will she do now that she will be in the spotlight as First Lady?
What to expect
Jill Biden will be an "active" first lady, believes Mark Johnson, a professor of political science at Rice University, USA.
Although it will not be "political" in the partisan sense as Hillary Clinton was, as that would make her a target of attacks, the expert clarifies.
"I would expect it to follow more the pattern of Michelle Obama, who was involved in political activities, but those that were more unifying than divisive, such as focusing on veterans, child welfare, but not trying to get health insurance approved. for everyone or something that was more political, "says Johnson.
"And if we want to get something out of her speech about the Convention, it is that education is an important issue for her, so we would expect her to focus on this during her tenure," she also says.
Karen Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University, also believes that Jill Biden will dedicate herself to educational issues.
"She has a Ph.D. in Education and has taught for a long time in community colleges so she is especially an advocate for these colleges and how they serve students who would not otherwise access higher education," the expert told BBC Mundo.
In the August interview with CBS, journalist Rita Braver asked Jill Biden if she believed she would continue teaching if she became first lady.
"I hope so," he replied.
"Really?" Braver replied.
"I would love to. If we make it to the White House, I'm going to continue teaching. It's important, and I want people to value teachers and know their contributions and elevate the profession," Jill Biden said.
But Professor Johnson believes that if he really did continue to teach, it would be only symbolic.
"If he really does, it will be purely symbolic because it can have a more positive effect from his platform as first lady," the analyst said.
But Kedrowski sees the logistics of Jill Biden continuing to teach as difficult because of the time demands of her White House position and because if she taught in person, "secret service agents" would have to be at the school where she works.
Furthermore, no first lady of the United States has held another job while in the White House.
But as she demonstrated during her years as "second lady," Jill Biden also has other areas of interest besides education.
"She is also very active in the prevention of breast cancer. I think it is also likely that she will continue with Michelle Obama's initiative to promote physical activity. She is a runner, so she is interested in those topics. I imagine that she will also continue to work for provide services to family members of veterans, "Kedrowski said.
In an interview with CNN in September, Jill Biden said she would "relaunch 'Joining Forces.'
"[When I was second lady] I asked Beau what Michelle and I should be working on and he said 'in mental health', so we need to expand mental health services for members of the [military] services," he told CNN added that schools also need the same.
In Professor Johnson's opinion, Jill Biden would do well to continue promoting these causes as "they are issues that bring people together."
Previous experience
In addition to Jill Biden's areas of concern, Johnson highlights the advantage of having been second lady for eight years.
"After seeing Michelle Obama for eight years, she has a clear idea of the responsibilities and challenges of a first lady," said the expert.
"Obama was a very successful first lady and Jill Biden has the luxury of seeing her up close, so one would expect her to emulate many of the successful practices of her predecessor," he added.
Unlike Melania Trump, who chose a more reserved style than other first ladies, Jill Biden is more used to being in the public eye, Kedrowski notes.
"She understands the power of a first lady to promote causes," says the expert.
Johnson believes that Biden "is better prepared than perhaps any other first lady besides Barbara Bush [George W.H. Bush's wife and second lady during the Ronald Reagan administration]."
"And I think Jill Biden had a better, closer relationship with Obama than Barbara Bush with Nancy Reagan," he says.
So Johnson thinks that Jill Biden "alongside Barbara Bush will be the most experienced first lady we've ever had."
