Sunday, March 8, 2015

Celebrating Eleanor Roosevelt on International Women's Day



It's wonderful to have a day to celebrate women and won't it be great when we can celebrate accomplishments like equal pay.  It seems crazy to me that this is still an issue.  Why don't women get paid more when we DO more?  It's not enough that we hold down full-time jobs and do them amazingly and then go home and throw together a healthy dinner that appeals to all members of the the family.  My family.  It's not easy.  We have to worry about sick kids, paying bills,  staying safe, and making people happy.

It's a lot to accomplish.

Eleanor Roosevelt, one of my female heroes, is someone who accomplished a lot and was always a beacon for women's issues.  She was born in NYC, the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, who lost both of her parent's at a young age.  She was sent to England for schooling and it seemed to cure her shyness. She married her distant cousin Franklin and they had six children.  She was a busy housewife but she made time during WWI to work for the Red Cross.

Franklin contracted polio in 1921 and Eleanor stepped up and assisted him with his political career. She changed the role of First Lady as she fully involved herself in press conferences, spoke out for human rights, women's issues, and children's causes.  She had her own newspaper column and worked with The League of Women Voter's.   All through Franklin's presidency she worked for change.  Upon her husband's death she said she was done but went on to work for the United Nations. She helped to craft the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which she considered to be her greatest achievement.  She died of cancer in 1962-the year I was born.

We've had amazing advocates like Eleanor so what's the hold-up on women's issues? My answer is too many men making laws/rules.

1 comment:

Kay said...

I love that picture of Eleanor. She was an amazing woman.