Joe Biden’s wife Jill Biden is also a teacher, mother, grandmother
Washington:
Jill Biden is no stranger to the shine of the political spotlight. Her husband has been a Washington insider since their marriage 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 the opportunity to push the role of first lady into the 21st century – keeping her full-time job as a professor.
“Most American women have both professional and family lives, but first ladies were never allowed to,” said Katherine Jellison, professor of history at the University of the Ohio.
“Perhaps the time has come, however, when more Americans will feel comfortable with a First Lady who is not on duty in the White House 24/7.”
Of course, Biden has for years been a trusted adviser to her 77-year-old husband, who has defeated incumbent President Donald Trump.
As first lady, she is expected to work on education issues and revive Joining Forces, a mission to bring military families together that she and Michelle Obama launched in 2011.
But she’s also a teacher, mother, grandmother, and the rock that brought Biden to life after the tragedy that struck nearly five decades ago.
‘Fucking tough and loyal’
In 1972, Joe Biden faced the unthinkable: his young wife and daughter were killed in a car crash and he was left alone to raise his two young sons, both injured in the crash.
Enter Jill Jacobs, who was born in 1951 and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her father rose through the ranks in banking from cashier to president, and her mother was a housewife.
Jill was in the process of divorcing her first husband when she met Biden, a widower who commuted daily from Delaware to Washington, where he was a United States Senator.
The couple married in 1977 and she became “mom” to her sons Hunter and Beau. The Biden have a daughter, Ashley, born in 1981.
While raising his family, Biden also earned two master’s degrees. She would eventually earn a doctorate in education and now teaches at Northern Virginia Community College.
Since then, the couple have experienced two presidential failures, his eight years as vice president, the death of Beau Biden after a battle with cancer – and now, a successful White House campaign.
“She put us back together,” Biden said in an August video released at the Democratic National Convention, describing Jill’s impact on the family scarred by the tragedy.
“She’s so tough and loyal.”
‘Small acts of compassion’
Biden assumed the role of Second Lady in 2009 when her husband became Barack Obama’s vice president, attending high-profile events with First Lady Michelle and developing a comfortable public speaking style.
Throughout her husband’s third run for the White House, Biden has been one of his most effective and powerful surrogates.
She campaigned tirelessly, crisscrossing the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and battlefields such as Florida and Michigan on the home stretch, often headlining small events.
She pitched her husband as the candidate who best appealed not only to moderate Democrats, but also to Independents and Republicans disillusioned with Trump.
In March, she found herself in the role of protector at an event in Los Angeles, when she dramatically pushed back two protesters who rushed at her husband on stage.
“We’re fine,” she said reassuringly.
In her convention speech to a classroom at a high school in Wilmington where she taught English in the 1990s, she vouched for her husband’s character, ability and heart.
“How do you deal with a broken family?” She said of Biden’s persistence in the face of adversity, a quality that she says connects him to millions of American families suffering from the pandemic, mass layoffs and racial tensions.
“The same way you make an entire nation,” she added. “With love and understanding – and with small acts of compassion. With bravery. With unwavering faith.”
‘Might be difficult’
Biden, who has fiercely protected her family throughout her husband’s career, has resisted attacks by Trump and his allies against him.
She may now be preparing for four years in the White House – and a busy schedule of teaching and working in the East Wing.
“If Biden continues to teach, she will forever change the expectations and boundaries of the job,” Kate Andersen Brower, author of “First Women: The Grace & Power of America’s Modern First Ladies,” told AFP.
“I think it might prove to be difficult, balancing a job and the first lady’s enormous job, but I also think it will broaden our ideas of what the first ladies are capable of,” she said.
Jellison warned Biden could face backlash from those who want a more traditional first lady, but she and Brower agreed now is the time for a change.
“We will surely have a male presidential spouse someday and I don’t think anyone expects him to give up his day job,” Brower said.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
