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First Lady Mrs O

Handling the world stage with confidence, ease and grace, Harvard Law School graduate Michelle Robinson Obama worked in a top US Law firm (Barack was her mentee) and went on to secure several leading roles in public office. She rises at 4.30am to hit the treadmill, skilfully balances being supermom with social campaigner and diplomat, not forgetting carrying off an impeccably classic fashion style. Claire Burge looks at why Michelle Obama is living up to her name as the First Lady.

Then people ask Michelle Obama to describe herself, she doesn’t hesitate. First and foremost, she is Malia (10) and Sasha’s (7) mom. As she told a Democratic Convention last year: “I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world – they’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future – and all our children’s future – is my stake in this election.”

But before she was a mother – or a wife, lawyer, or public servant – she was Fraser and Marian Robinson’s daughter.

The Robinsons lived in a brick bungalow on the South Side of Chicago. Michelle’s father, Fraser was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, and despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a young age, he hardly ever missed a day of work. Her mother, Marian Shields Robinson, was a secretary at a catalogue store who later stayed home to raise Michelle and her brother, Craig.  As Michelle says: “My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.”

A product of Chicago public schools, Michelle is an accomplished individual in her own right. She studied sociology and African-American studies at Princeton University and after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1988, she joined the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she later met the man who would become the love of her life.

Michelle was assigned as Barack’s mentor when they were among very few African Americans at their law firm. They were married in 1992, and in 2007 they began what she calls their “improbable journey” to the White House. “Barack didn’t pledge riches” Michelle explains to Newsweek. “Only a life that would be interesting. On that promise he’s delivered.” She also says of her marriage, which is under the intense media spotlight: “I never worry about things I can’t affect, and with fidelity... that is between Barack and me, and if somebody can come between us, we didn’t have much to begin with.”

After a few years, Michelle decided her true calling lay in encouraging people to serve their communities and their neighbours. She served as assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago’s City Hall before becoming the founding executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares youth for public service.

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