Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 2 by Blanche Wiesen Cook

'Revised' by Kenneth Russell Chamberlain (1891-1984) for Puck Magazine, April 14, 1917. In the coming decades, these associations would become stronger still, transforming the former debutante into a political powerhouse. In addition, ER’s commitment to the settlement house movement and her participation in social reform introduced her to suffrage activists who saw the vote as a vital tool to improve American society, especially for working women and their families. In 1935, in an interview for Equal Rights, she asserted: “The fundamental purpose of feminism is that women should have equal opportunity and equal rights with every other citizen.” 6 But although ER did not engage in the suffrage movement and only belatedly claimed a feminist identity, her activities in the first two decades of the twentieth century laid the groundwork for a lifetime of feminist activism.ĮR’s activities in these years exemplified social feminism, an understanding of women’s role that encouraged a broad cross-section of American women to engage in public life. It was not until later in life that ER described herself as a feminist. Until the 1920s, ER “considered any stand at that time quite outside my field of work” as the mother of young children and the wife of a rising politician. When a member of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage attempted to gain her support, she demurred. She did not participate in the woman suffrage movement - although she also did not publicly oppose woman suffrage. NPS Photo.ĮR was a latecomer to feminist politics. It's Up to the Women, by Eleanor Roosevelt, published in 1933. As she told the New York Times: “Women are by nature progressives.” 3 ER exemplified what scholars have described as the “domestication of politics,” engaging in a distinctive “women’s political culture” that placed women at the vanguard of progressive movements for human rights both at home and abroad. As she explained in an interview with Good Housekeeping: “Women must become more conscious of themselves as women and of their ability to function as a group.” 2 In addition, ER believed that women’s distinctive approach to politics would benefit society as a whole.

They are equals in many ways, but they cannot refuse to acknowledge the differences.” 1 To ER’s way of thinking, women’s differences were the basis for women’s activism. As she put it in her 1933 call to action, It’s Up to the Women, “Women are different from men. But she also believed that women’s differences from men made them uniquely qualified to engage in political activism. ER believed that women were entitled to equal rights. Throughout her long career in politics, Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) championed both women’s rights and women’s activism.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Women’s Politics, and Human Rights

Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 2 by Blanche Wiesen Cook