Jill Biden, the "First Lady" who wants to continue working
Contrary to the Melania Trump style, Jill Biden has always been very clear: education and her profession are essential to her. The future First Lady wishes to break with a 231-year-old tradition by continuing her teaching career.
The future First Lady of the United States of America intends to be a very busy “FLOTUS”. The “First Lady of The United States”, hence the nickname “FLOTUS”, a popular acronym used to designate the president's wife, plans to keep her post as an English professor at the university after having asked boxes at the White House.
During her eight years as Second Lady (Joe Biden was Barack Obama's vice-president during his two terms), she had already continued to teach at Northern Virginia Community College, those institutions which seek to democratize higher education. It was the same when her husband was a senator for 36 years.
A clear break with Melania Trump, whose very introverted personality was difficult to pierce - and whose "mandate" in the White House will have taken place entirely in the shadow of her husband. The former Slovenian-born model has barely been involved, from time to time, except in charity work.
"A formidable First Lady"
Jill appears instead described as an alter ego of Joe. According to observers, what marked the campaign of the two Bidens was the serenity they both displayed. An essential quality for this election marked by a dropper count of votes, an outgoing President trying to stop the ballot and brandishing suspicions of unjustified fraud, threatening not to let go of power ... Through all these storms, the Biden couple remained calm, and called on the rest of the world to do the same.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama, who considers Jill Biden as "a close friend", also says of her that she brings "kindness, empathy and humor, even in the most difficult situations". "She is going to be a great First Lady," she told the American daily USA TODAY.
A role to be created
Like Michelle Obama, Jill Biden will also be writing history, in her own way. She intends to become the first "FLOTUS", since the creation of this title 231 years ago, to continue her career and keep a paid job. "If we get to the White House, I will continue to teach," she said again in August. “I want people to care about teachers, realize their contributions and support the profession. "
"It is she who will change the role of the First Lady in the twenty-first century", analyzes Katherine Jellison, historian of the First Ladies quoted by USA TODAY, stressing that no "FLOTUS" before was "authorized" to behave like most modern American women, leading their career and personal life. “Historically, Americans have always preferred First Ladies to be in the White House, and alongside the President whenever possible,” says Katherine Jellison. “Maybe times have changed, and Americans are more open to the idea that a president's wife can be both First Lady and an employee at work. "
Teaching is not what I do. It's who I am.
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) August 18, 2020
I'll be giving my convention speech tonight from my former classroom.
Brandywine High School. Room 232. pic.twitter.com/NXx1EkqVGq
Education above all
Given her long career in education, this will be high on the list of the First Lady's priorities, as well as the continuation of programs already underway as Second Lady: the “Joining Forces” initiative, intended to support military families, and cancer awareness. A disease that killed both parents, as well as her stepson, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.
With four master's degrees and a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware, Jill Biden has worked most of her life. She only interrupted twice. The first time, in 1981, for the birth of her daughter Ashley. And the second, more recently, to follow her husband in the countryside (she allowed herself a few months of unpaid leave to be able to accompany him).
Jill Biden was born in 1951 in Hammonton, New Jersey and grew up in the small market town of Willow Grove, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, of Italian origin, was a bank teller and her mother a housewife. This eldest of five daughters married Bill Stevenson after graduating from high school. But their marriage was only a flash in the pan, and the young students parted ways two years later. According to legend, Joe Biden, then senator from Delaware, fell in love with him. Widowed following a car accident that claimed the lives of his first wife and their daughter (the couple's other two children will survive), he sees Jill's photo in an advertisement - she does a little modeling to round off her ends. months -, and seeks to meet her. They started dating in the spring of 1975.
He will be a President for all of our families. pic.twitter.com/iGPKLMMIcK
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) November 7, 2020
The couple say Joe Biden had to do it five times before she agreed to marry him - Jill wanting to be sure Beau and Hunter, the two boys, didn't lose their mother a second time. Jill and Joe married in 1977, and have a daughter four years later. Jill Biden has always been very attached to the family, which she underlined again shortly after the election of her husband in a tweet: "He will be the President of all families". The Biden now have five grandchildren, aged 14 to 25, who have made a few appearances during the campaign.
"Humanize" the POTUS
Even if Jill Biden dons the costume of First Lady with an unexpected adornment, that of a "working girl", she has already proven herself and demonstrated the qualities that the American people traditionally expect in the wife of the "POTUS" (President Of The United States): make her husband more human, and support his program.
She also denounced the "slander" uttered by the Trump camp to "distract" from recent accusations of corruption brought against Joe and Hunter, a problem cadet who did business in China and Ukraine when his father was the right-hand man of Barack Obama.
However, she has remained quiet in the face of the rape charge in the 1990s filed by a woman, Tara Reade, whom Joe Biden has categorically denied. The president-elect was also criticized for having a too tactile relationship with women, who complained of intrusive gestures. Jill Biden claimed to see only innocent behavior from her husband, who admitted to having "learned" statements from these women deeming their private space invaded. And that may be the one thing Melania Trump and Jill Biden have in common: supporting their other half through adversity, no matter what.
