It has come to include participation in political campaigns, management of the Casa de Nariño, advocacy for social causes, and representing the president on official and ceremonial occasions.

Additionally, over the years, individual first ladies have been influential in a variety of sectors, from fashion to public opinion on politics, as well as advocacy for female empowerment.

Historically, when a president was unmarried or widowed, he typically asked a family member to act as Casa de Nariño hostess.

Bolívar did however, have a lover, Manuela Sáenz,[5][6] a married woman who was the love of his life, and with whom he lived with despite the conservative views of his time.

Núñez first came to power in 1880 as President of what it was then known as the United States of Colombia, but when he moved to the capital, his wife Soledad Román stayed behind in their hometown of Cartagena,[10] as their union was heavily criticized by the conservative society and media of the time for Núñez had legally divorced his first wife, María de los Dolores Gallegos Martínez,[10] and married Román in a civil ceremony,[11] but according to canon law they remained married in the eyes of God, and thus Núñez was accused of adultery and Román regarded as his mistress.

In Colombia, the title was first used in print media in 1933, when the magazine Cromos used it to refer to the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt as First Lady of the United States,[13] by then the term was broadly used in the United States to refer to the wife of the president.

However, in 2002, when Noemí Sanín became the second woman to win a major party's presidential nomination, questions arose about what her boyfriend Javier's title would be if she won the presidency.

According to article 188 of the Constitution of Colombia established by the Constitutional Court of Colombia, before the public administration the first lady will hold the title of private citizen, although she is given an additional special role, being the wife of the president, along with With this he would symbolically embody the idea of national unity.

[23] For its part, Law 7 of 1979 establishes that the first lady will remain linked to the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare,[21] without specific functions in a purely honorary manner.