With all of this talk of potential first ladies in the news these days, it's got me thinking about one of my favorite feminist heroines of all frickin' time, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Not only did she chair the committee that created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but she can be thought of as one of the catalyzing forces that ushered in the second wave of feminism. Her personal life was also fascinating--from a love-starved childhood to her consistently contentious relationship with her mother-in-law, to her later alleged affairs with women and men alike (Franklin obviously had his lovin' on the side). Reading about her life is like peering into the history of women's transcendent public works alongside their tumultuous private lives.
Thank you Eleanor, for your incredible spirit, visionary leadership, and fiercely unique example.
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Eleanor Roosevelt was practically a secular saint in my 1950's childhood. She helped keep alive the progressive traditions that dimmed during the Eisenhower Years.
Thank you Courtney for remembering this remarkable woman...
I first read her statement "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" when I was 12 (on the inside of a sample pack of all kinds of pads, tampons, and panty liners that I got at school, no less). That statement has sustained me in many ways since then - it even helped me get through high school. I don't know much else about her but I'm eternally grateful for that.
Eleanor Roosevelt is and always will be one of my HEROES. If you want to read a fascinating bit of speculative history fiction, pick up "Eleanor Vs. Ike," which imagines what the campaign for the White House would have been like if Eleanor Roosevelt was running against Eisenhower. The author isn't a fiction author by trade, so it gets a bit bumpy at times where she really wants to show she did all of her research!, but is ultimately awesome. I had to put the book down a couple of times because it was just so heartwarming/heartbreaking (Eleanor was facing a lot of the same problems we saw Hillary face this year).