Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt hosts a discussion on a newly created President's Commission on the Status of Women created with executive order 10980 in the Kennedy administration on December 14, 1961-October 11, 1963. Mrs. Roosevelt interviews President John F. Kennedy at the White House on his hopes for the new commission of which Roosevelt had been appointed Chair. Roosevelt and Kennedy discuss women attaining higher public office and careers, the problem of childcare in relation to women seeking higher employment status, housewives increasing their contributions to society, and the future of equal pay legislation.
Roosevelt leads a 40-minute panel discussion with Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg; Dr. Mirra Komarovsky, Sociologist at Barnard College, Agda Rossel, Representative to the United Nations for Sweden; and Thomas Mendenhall President of Smith College. The group discusses daycare policies in the United States in comparison to Sweden, daycare and the effects of such on child development, effects of motherhood on women's employment, prejudice toward women in college curriculums, work opportunities, educational opportunities for older women, and equal and adequate pay for American workers.
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady throughout her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office (1933-1945). She was an American politician, diplomat, and activist who later served as a United Nations spokeswoman.
A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved–and for some years one of the most revered–women of her generation.
She was born in New York City on October 11, 1884, daughter of lovely Anna Hall and Elliott Roosevelt, younger brother of Theodore. When her mother died in 1892, the children went to live with Grandmother Hall; she adored father died only two years later. Attending a distinguished school in England gave her, at 15, her first chance to develop self-confidence among other girls.
Tall, slender, graceful figure but apprehensive at the thought of being a wallflower, she returned for a debut that she dreaded. In her circle of friends was a distant cousin, handsome young Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They became engaged in 1903 and were married in 1905, with her uncle the President giving the bride away. Within eleven years Eleanor bore six children; one son died in infancy. “I suppose I was fitting pretty well into the pattern of a fairly conventional, quiet, young society matron,” she wrote later in her autobiography.
In Albany, where Franklin served in the state Senate from 1910 to 1913, Eleanor started her long career as a political helpmate. She gained a knowledge of Washington and its ways while he served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. When he was stricken with poliomyelitis in 1921, she tended him devotedly. She became active in the women’s division of the State Democratic Committee to keep his interest in politics alive. From his successful campaign for governor in 1928 to the day of his death, she dedicated her life to his purposes. She became eyes and ears for him, a trusted and tireless reporter.
When Mrs. Roosevelt came to the White House in 1933, she understood social conditions better than any of her predecessors and she transformed the role of First Lady accordingly. She never shirked official entertaining; she greeted thousands with charming friendliness. She also broke the precedent to hold press conferences, travel to all parts of the country, give lectures and radio broadcasts, and express her opinions candidly in a daily syndicated newspaper column, “My Day.”
This made her a tempting target for political enemies but her integrity, her graciousness, and her sincerity of purpose endeared her personally to many–from heads of state to servicemen she visited abroad during World War II. As she had written wistfully at 14: “…no matter how plain a woman may be if truth & loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her….”
After the President’s death in 1945, she returned to a cottage at his Hyde Park estate; she told reporters: “the story is over.” Within a year, however, she began her service as American spokesman in the United Nations. She continued a vigorous career until her strength began to wane in 1962. She died in New York City that November, and was buried at Hyde Park beside her husband.
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