Should First Lady be capitalized? So we have Dr. Jill Biden. Most people cannot be bothered with

[niyad]

her title (and I refuse to capitalize any qop's name or title, but that is just me.). So I go to google, and find conflicting style manual answers, including the one from the very traditionalist ?White House museum, which says no, unless followed by name. Then ?I found the answer from DRM about everything (sorry, my computer will not let me link, or copy and paste), which says that lack of capitalization of First Lady is basically a sexist holdover.

So, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden it is.

[torius]

1. It may be capitalized when referring to a specific First Lady

or a U.S. one (esp. in U.S. publications’ style manuals) but not for the general term. Certainly as a title before a name it should be. “President” is like that too. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden is (shocker) First Lady. Joe is President Biden. Biden is President. But, you might use lower case as a general term, such as “a first lady or first gentleman is the spouse of a president” in general.

[brewens]

2. The 1980 AP Style Guide says not to capitalize in either case. Same with first family. They say not

a formal title. That may have changed.

[niyad]

3. As I said, the various style manuals conflict, so I will go with the one that makes sense to me.

[Lettuce Be]

4. I would capitalize when combined with the name, First Lady Jill Biden but not

if merely referring to her but not saying her name, the first lady. How often would one refer to the first lady without saying her name though? Not often. If in doubt, can't go wrong with always capitalizing.

[niyad]

5. And so I shall.