Eleanor Roosevelt: once, the U.S. President's wife was expected to be a silent partner. Eleanor Roosevelt changed that rule forever.

Beginning with Martha Washington, a U.S. President's wife was expected to be seen and not heard. Politics was a man's world, and women were not welcome in it. "The President's wife must be a silent partner," stated The New York Times Magazine in 1932. "The unwritten law is that the First Lady gives no interviews, makes no public statements."

The role of First Lady underwent a serious change after Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency in 1932. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, had long been an advocate (strong supporter) of causes such as helping the unemployed and ending child labor. With the country suffering through the Great Depression (1929-1940), she wanted to do more than just host White House parties.

Even the new First Lady worried about breaking with tradition. "It was new and untried ground, and I was feeling my way with some trepidation [fear]," Eleanor Roosevelt wrote. Despite relentless criticism at first, her work on behalf of the poor and oppressed won wide approval. She soon became known as the First Lady of the World.

Unhappy Childhood

Eleanor Roosevelt was born in 1884, into a life of wealth and privilege. Her mother, Anna, was a glamourous society woman. Her father, Elliott, was the brother of Theodore Roosevelt, who became the 26th President in 1901.

Yet Eleanor grew up shy, alone, and unhappy. Her mother found her homely (unattractive), saying, "You have no looks, so see to it that you have manners." Eleanor's father adored her. But he struggled with a drinking problem that caused the family to break up. It led to his untimely death in 1894. Anna Roosevelt had died two years earlier; so Eleanor was now an orphan.

At age 15, Eleanor began to gain confidence with the help of teachers at her boarding school. Six years later, she married a distant cousin, Franklin Roosevelt. He launched a promising career as a Democratic politician while she raised their five children.

Franklin's dreams almost collapsed in 1921. He contracted (came down with) polio, a disease that forced him to use crutches and a wheelchair for life. With Eleanor's help, though, he rebounded. In 1928, Franklin was elected Governor of New York. Four years later, he was elected the 32nd President.

A Different First Lady

As a public figure, Eleanor Roosevelt had her own handicaps to overcome. Many people found her high, quavering voice irritating. Tall and gangly, she did not like wearing the fashionable clothes expected of a First Lady. Instead, Eleanor Roosevelt worked to be a different kind of trendsetter. She became the first First Lady to hold press conferences. She 'also wrote a daily newspaper column called "My Day."

President Roosevelt's top goal was to ease the suffering caused by the Great Depression. Eleanor traveled the country as his eyes and ears--so much so that people called her Eleanor Everywhere. One week, she might investigate the terrible living conditions of West Virginia coal miners. The next, she would see how Jim Crow (segregation) laws denied rights to blacks in the South. After the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941, the First Lady visited troops at hundreds of military bases and hospitals.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt did not always see eye to eye, but he frequently took her advice. Sometimes, he would ask her to speak out on controversial (disputable) issues that might have caused an uproar if he had expressed the same opinion.

Eleanor Roosevelt's outspokenness angered stone people. One New York woman wrote to the President asking whether he could "muzzle that female creature, known to the world as your wife."

But even the President's harshest critics saw the good in Eleanor's work. One of them wrote, "I think we can take the wraps off and call her the greatest American woman, because there is no other who works as hard or knows the lowdown truth about the people and the trouble in their hearts as well as she does."

New Horizons

President Roosevelt died April 12, 1945, just as his fourth term in office was beginning. The new President, Harry S. Truman, appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as a delegate to the General Assembly of the newly created United Nations (UN). In 1946, she was elected chair of the UN's Human Rights Commission.

Its job was to create the first global bill of rights--an answer to the horrors of Hitler and World War II.

Not all countries approved of the commission's work. Repressive countries like the Soviet Union objected to concepts like human rights and religious freedom. After months of exhausting work, the UN General Assembly finally voted to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948.

To many people, getting the declaration written and approved was Eleanor Roosevelt's greatest achievement. Even then, she did not let up. Until her death in 1962, she continued to write, speak out, and influence politics. "If anyone were to ask me what I want out of life," she wrote, "I would say--the opportunity for doing something useful, for in no other way, I am convinced, can true happiness be attained."

Your Turn

WORD MATCH

1. advocate        A. fear

2. trepidation     B. came down
                   with
3. homely          C. disputable

4. controversial   D. unattractive

5. contracted      E. strong supporter

THINK ABOUT IT

1. What obstacles did Eleanor Roosevelt overcome to achieve success?

2. What role should a First Lady play in public policy? Explain.

LESSON PLANS

OBJECTIVE

Students should understand

* Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the role and duties of the First Lady through her social and political activism.

TEACHING STRATEGY

Ask students to identify some recent First Ladies. Then conduct a discussion on what the responsibilities of the First Lady should be and whether they have changed since Eleanor Roosevelt's day.

BACKGROUND

Eleanor Roosevelt began her humanitarian work long before she entered the White House. Throughout the 1920s, Roosevelt worked on behalf of woman suffrage and women's labor unions. She also founded a furniture factory to aid the unemployed and taught briefly at an all-girls school in New York City.

THINKING SKILLS

COMPARE AND CONTRAST: How did Eleanor Roosevelt distinguish herself as First Lady? (Previously, the First Lady was expected to refrain from politics and primarily act as hostess at White House functions. But Eleanor Roosevelt conducted press conferences, wrote a daily newspaper column, traveled the nation to promote government policies, and spoke out on controversial issues.)

MAKING CONNECTIONS: How did Eleanor Roosevelt continue her political and social activism after leaving the White House? (She served as a delegate to the newly created United Nations in 1945. The next year, she led the UN's effort to create a global bill of rights, which was eventually adopted in 1948.)

ACTIVITY

WRITE AN EDITORIAL: Point out to students that Eleanor Roosevelt used her syndicated column, "My Day," as a platform to promote social and political causes. Instruct students to write their own editorials about policies they'd like to see changed, whether in school, in their town, or in the government.

STANDARDS

SOCIAL STUDIES, GRADES 5-8

* Individual Identity and development: How Eleanor Roosevelt gained fame and admiration for her humaitarian work and became a political and public role model for women.

* Time, continuity, and change: How the role and duties of the First Lady dramatically changed because of Eleanor Roosevelt.

RESOURCES

PRINT

* Freedman, Russell, Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery (Houghton Mifflin, 1997). Grades 7-8.

* Kramer, Sydelle, Look It Up Book of First Ladies (Random House, 2001). Grades 5-8.

WEB SITES

* Eleanor Roosevelt www.nps.gov/elro/index.htm

* U.S. First Ladies www.firstladies.org/

ANSWERS

1. E

2. A

3. D

4. C

5. B