While many members of elite New York donated money to charity, Eleanor felt it was important to donate time and energy. She wanted to meet the people she was helping and offer her knowledge and skills.
Eleanor married her first cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on March 17, Eleanor felt she fulfilled her duty as a young lady through the marriage. Franklin was a promising young political figure and member of the New York elite. Her commitment to family was so strong and her domestic duties so intense that she put her volunteer and activism work aside.
In , Eleanor was heartbroken when she discovered that Franklin had an affair with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer. Eleanor confronted Franklin, but once again fulfilled her social duty by agreeing to stay married to him. Although they remained together, their relationship changed. They supported one another, but did not have the same emotional connection. She found time to return to her personal passions. She developed a close circle of friends and advisors equally interested in social reform.
Together, they raised awareness on issues of child labor, tenement conditions, education reform, and civil rights. In the summer of , Franklin contracted polio. Although he survived, he was paralyzed in his legs and required use of a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Franklin thought his political career was over, but Eleanor refused to allow him to give up. She encouraged him to continue working and used her own growing political network to bolster his career.
By the end of the s, Eleanor believed not only that women needed to regularly vote, but also that they needed to involve themselves in politics and social reform. According to her, women had a duty to fight for their own rights. They could not assume equal rights would be offered to them by men in power. Women needed to be leaders. In , Franklin was elected governor of New York.
Just four years later, in , he was elected president of the United States. Eleanor was reluctant about her new role as first lady. She did not want to live a public life, nor did she want to sacrifice her role as an activist. But soon Eleanor realized that she could use her role to make a difference.
The nation was suffering under the Great Depression and her husband had a tremendous task ahead of him. Eleanor had been a vital support to Franklin earlier in his career, and she could do it again as first lady.
But Eleanor had few formal obligations and no major physical impediments. She traveled across the country, meeting with men, women, and children in need. She visited factories, tenements, mines, and agricultural fields. She provided a smile and a message of encouragement to those who hoped for change. Although Eleanor was eager to work and serve her country, holding such a high-profile position did not come easily to her.
Her relationship with Franklin was more professional than personal, so Eleanor sought support from others. Hick encouraged Eleanor to hold regular press conferences and to start a weekly column called My Day. Although it is impossible to know how they interacted in private, many historians agree that their letters strongly suggest a romantic relationship.
Through My Day and other columns, Eleanor shared what she experienced with a wider audience. She encouraged Americans to write to her.
She received hundreds of thousands of letters, and she did her best to respond to as many as possible. Eleanor knew Franklin longer than almost any of his advisors.
As his wife, she could say things to him that others could not. She told him what she saw while traveling and what she read in letters she received. She talked to him about her work as a grassroots activist and settlement worker. Her ideas had significant influence on his New Deal policies.
Eleanor was an advocate for women in government. She reminded Franklin that women were capable of incredible social reform, and encouraged him to hire women from across the country to work in the federal government.
The basis of success in a Democracy is really laid down by the people. It will progress only as their own personal development goes forward. Redefining the role of the first lady, she advocated for human and women's rights, held press conferences and penned her own column. After leaving the White House in , Eleanor became chair of the U.
The groundbreaking first lady died in in New York City. Known as a shy child, Eleanor experienced tremendous loss at a young age: Her mother died in and her father followed suit two years later, leading to her being placed under the care of her maternal grandmother. Eleanor was sent to Allenswood Academy in London when she was a teenager — an experience that helped draw her out of her shell. After Eleanor became reacquainted with her distant cousin Franklin in , the two embarked on a clandestine relationship.
They were engaged in and, over the objections of Franklin's mother, Sara, were married on March 17, , a ceremony that featured Theodore walking his niece down the aisle. As her husband achieved success in politics, Eleanor found her own voice in public service, working for the American Red Cross during World War I.
She also exerted herself more prominently after Franklin suffered a polio attack in that essentially left him in need of physical assistance for the rest of his life. When Franklin took office as president in , Eleanor dramatically changed the role of the first lady. Not content to stay in the background and handle domestic matters, she gave press conferences and spoke out for human rights, children's causes and women's issues, working on behalf of the League of Women Voters.
Along with penning her own newspaper column, "My Day," Eleanor focused on helping the country's poor, stood against racial discrimination and, during World War II, traveled abroad to visit U.
She served in the role of first lady until Franklin Roosevelt's death on April 12, Following her husband's passing, Eleanor told interviewers that she didn't have plans for continuing her public service. However, the opposite would actually prove to be true: President Harry Truman appointed Eleanor as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, a position in which she served from to She became chair of the U.
Valentine G. Hall, in Tivoli, New York. She was educated by private tutors until the age of 15, when she was sent to Allenswood, a school for girls in England. The headmistress, Mademoiselle Marie Souvestre, took a special interest in young Eleanor and had a great influence on her education and thinking.
At age 18, Eleanor returned to New York with a fresh sense of confidence in herself and her abilities. She became involved in social service work, joined the Junior League and taught at the Rivington Street Settlement House. On March 17, , she married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and between and , they became the parents of six children: Anna Eleanor , James , Franklin Delano, Jr. During this period, her public activities gave way to family concerns and her husband's political career.
In , Franklin Roosevelt was stricken with polio causing Mrs. Roosevelt to become increasingly active in politics in part to help him maintain his interests but also to assert her own personality and goals.
Upon moving to the White House in , Eleanor Roosevelt informed the nation that they should not expect their new first lady to be a symbol of elegance, but rather "plain, ordinary Mrs.
In , Mrs. Roosevelt became the first, First Lady to hold her own press conference. In an attempt to afford equal time to women--who were traditionally barred from presidential press conferences--she allowed only female reporters to attend. In protest, Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership in the DAR. Throughout Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, Eleanor traveled extensively around the nation, visiting relief projects, surveying working and living conditions, and then reporting her observations to the President.
She was called "the President's eyes, ears and legs" and provided objective information to her husband.
0コメント