[11][12] Writers including William Safire and Jeff McQuain have suggested that use of the term "second lady" to refer to the wife of the vice president of the United States did not become more commonplace until the 1980s.
[13][14] However, in 2017, Washington Post columnist Philip Bump argued that use of the phrase "second lady" could be traced back as early as the 1860s, strengthening in popularity around 1892, and "spiking" around the turn of the 20th century, according to his research using the Google Ngram tool.
[14] In 1996, Tipper Gore wrote that the spouse of the vice president did not have an official title, and that people were often unsure about how to introduce her, saying: "Sometimes they call me the Second Lady.
[1] In 2021, Merriam-Webster added the term "second gentleman" to its dictionary, in light of Doug Emhoff becoming the first male spouse of an American vice president.
[20] Andrew Rosati of Bloomberg News said in 2022 that Fetterman, a former undocumented immigrant to the U.S. from Brazil, has "transformed the ceremonial role of Second Lady of Pennsylvania...into a megaphone for the marginalized".
[24] During her tenure, she founded WOTCLEF (Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation), and became the first civilian in Nigerian history to propose draft legislation.
[24] In the United Kingdom, Camilla Parker Bowles was said to become the "second lady in the land", ranking second only to Queen Elizabeth II, upon marrying Charles, Prince of Wales, in 2005.