Eleanor Roosevelt

As noted on the right, March is Women’s History Month. In keeping with that theme here is a short biography of a woman I’m sure you’ve all heard of: Eleanor Roosevelt. You’re all aware she was the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and if you click on her name you can read a short biography. I thought I’d share a few other facts about her life that you may not know.

A suffragist who worked to enhance the status of working women, she nevertheless opposed the Equal Rights Amendment because she believed it would adversely affect women. She was appointed by President Truman as a delegate to the UN General Assembly. During her time at the United Nations she chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She was the first First Lady to hold weekly press conferences. In the 1948 campaign, she was touted by some as the ideal running mate for President Truman. During her lifetime she received 35 honorary degrees, compared to 31 awarded to her husband.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:
A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.