Who is Jill Biden, 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 last year, after her husband was officially named the presidential candidate for the US election. .USA
At the end of her message, the now president, Joe 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 about 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," the then-candidate said.
Months later, Jill Biden is the new first lady, a position that will not be so unknown to her.
Biden was vice president during the government of Barack Obama, between 2009 and 2017, for which she was the "second lady" of the United States.
From that position, she promoted educational causes and had privileged access to Michelle Obama, the then first lady. She 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 work in the White House?
Personal life
Jill Jacobs was born in June 1951 in the state of New Jersey. The oldest of five sisters, she grew up in Willow Grove, a suburb of Philadelphia.
She remarried to her current husband, she was previously married for five years to former college football player Bill Stevenson.
She met Joe Biden after he lost his first wife and their 13-month-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 the 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 and T-shirts. But he came knocking on the door dressed in a sport coat and loafers, and I thought, 'God, this is never going to work, not in a while.' million years.' He was nine years older than me!" Jill said in an interview with Vogue magazine in 2016.
"But we went to see 'A Man and a Woman' at the theater in Philly, and we really hit it off," she added of the first date.
Jill also said that Joe proposed to her five times before she accepted.
"She couldn't let them [Joe's sons Beau and Hunter] lose another mother. So she 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 interview in August with journalist Rita Braver of CBS, a BBC partner in the US.
As she offered her message to endorse her husband's candidacy, Jill Biden spoke about the family and the struggles they have faced.
"I know that if we entrust this country to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours: come together and pull us through in times of need, fulfill America's promise to all of us," she emphasized during her speech. she.
Her message did not only seek to promote her husband. Delivering it from a classroom was a nod to her long career in her education and a symbolic gesture of the concerns she will have as first lady of the United States.
Teacher
Jill Biden, 69, has a bachelor's and two master's degrees, earning a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007.
The new first lady has spent decades working as a teacher. In the 1980s, she taught English at an adolescent psychiatric hospital.
Between 1991 and 1993, she taught English at Brandywine Public High School in Delaware. Her speech at the Democratic Convention was given precisely in what had been her former classroom at this school.
For the next 15 years, Jill Biden taught at Delaware Technical & Community College.
After the victory of Obama and Biden in 2009, she moved to Washington D.C., but she continued to teach English at Northern Virginia Community College.
"Teaching is not what I do. It's who I am," she maintains.
Her activities during the Obama administration extended far beyond the classroom, because at the same time that she taught, she fulfilled her tasks as second lady.
Politics
In this position, she dedicated herself to promoting community colleges (U.S. centers of higher education), which she always referred to as "one of the best kept secrets in America," according to the page of the Obama White House.
She was also dedicated to advocating for military families and, along 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 her granddaughter Natalie, daughter of Beau Biden,'s experience of being in a military family.
Beau, who died of cancer in 2015, was 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 the second lady.
In 1993, she founded the Biden Breast Health Initiative to raise awareness of early detection after four friends were diagnosed with breast cancer.
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 political science professor at Rice University in the US.
Although she will not be "political" in the partisan sense as Hillary Clinton was, because that would make her a target of attacks, the expert clarifies.
"I would expect her to follow more of the pattern of Michelle Obama, who got involved in political activities, but those that were more unifying than divisive, like focusing on veterans, child welfare, but not trying to get health insurance passed. for everyone or something that was more political," says Johnson.
“And if we want to take something away from her from her convention speech, it's that education is an important issue for her, so we would expect her to focus on this during her tenure,” he also says.
Karen Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University, also thinks Jill Biden will pursue educational issues.
"She has a doctorate in Education and has taught for a long time in community colleges, so she is especially supportive of 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," she replied.
"Really?" Braver replied.
"I would love to. If we get to the White House, I'm going to keep teaching. It's important, and I want people to value teachers and know about their contributions and elevate the profession," said Jill Biden.
But Professor Johnson believes that if she were to continue teaching, it would be only in a symbolic way.
"If she actually does it, it will be purely symbolic because it can have a more positive effect from her platform as first lady," the analyst said.
Kedrowski sees the logistics of Jill Biden continuing to teach as difficult, because of the time demands of her position in the White House and because if she were to teach in person, "secret service agents" would have to be at the school where she will work
Furthermore, no US first lady has held another job while she has been in the White House.
As she demonstrated during her years as "second lady," Jill Biden also has areas of interest other than education.
"She's also very active in breast cancer prevention. I think she's also likely to continue Michelle Obama's initiative to promote physical activity. She's a runner, so she's interested in those issues. I imagine she'll also continue to work to provide services to family members of veterans," Kedrowski said.
In an interview with CNN in September 2020, Jill Biden said that she "would relaunch 'Joining Forces.'"
"[When I was second lady] I asked Beau what Michelle and I should be working on and she said, 'Mental health.' So we need to expand mental health services for members of the military," she told CNN and He added that schools also need the same.
In Professor Johnson's opinion, Jill Biden would do well to continue promoting these causes because "these are issues that bring people together."
Previous experience
In addition to Jill Biden's areas of concern, Johnson highlights the advantage that having been second lady for eight years confers on her.
"After watching Michelle Obama for eight years, he has a clear idea of the responsibilities and challenges of a first lady," says the expert.
"Obama was a very successful first lady and Jill Biden has the luxury of having seen her up close, so one would expect her to emulate many of her predecessor's successful practices," he adds.
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 apart from Barbara Bush [wife of George W.H. Bush and second lady during the Ronald Reagan administration]."
"And I think Jill Biden had a better, closer relationship with Obama than Barbara Bush had with Nancy Reagan," she notes.
"Next to Barbara Bush, Jill Biden will be the most experienced first lady we've ever had," Johnson concludes.
