Womens History Month Highlight: Eleanor Roosevelt - The First Lady of The World

Eleanor Roosevelt continues to be remembered as one of the most prominent humanitarians of her generation, and was one of five women honored in 2023 by the U.S. Mint's American Women Quarter's Program. Her quarter features her portrait against the scales of justice, symbolizing her work on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Throughout her long career in politics, Eleanor Roosevelt championed both women’s rights and women’s activism. She believed that women were entitled to equal rights. But she also believed that women’s differences from men is what made them uniquely qualified to engage in political activism. As she put it in her 1933 call to action, It’s Up to the Women, “Women are different from men. They are equals in many ways, but they cannot refuse to acknowledge the differences. . . The fundamental purpose of feminism is that women should have equal opportunity and equal rights with every other citizen [not only based on but because of their uniqueness].”

Appointed in 1946, she served for more than a decade as a delegate to the United Nations, the institution established by her husband, and embraced the cause of world peace. She not only chaired the United Nations Human Rights Commission, she also helped write the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, becoming known as "The First Lady to The World." 

Her continued commitment to social justice was evident in her civil rights work and efforts to push Washington to take swifter action in housing desegregation and protections for Freedom Riders and other activists. In 1960, at the request of President John F. Kennedy, she chaired the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, which released a ground-breaking study about gender discrimination a year after her death in 1963. She also worked on the Equal Pay Act that was passed that same year. President Kennedy nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize and though she did not win, she remained at the top of national polls ranking the most respected women in America decades after her death.

Eleanor Roosevelt continues to be remembered as one of the most prominent humanitarians of her generation, and was one of five women honored in 2023 by the U.S. Mint's American Women Quarter's Program. Her quarter features her portrait against the scales of justice, symbolizing her work on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Like most women who have become leaders in civil and human rights, Eleanor Roosevelt became aware of the barriers women face while working with other women on other social justice issues. And for these reasons, we here at TAC not only consider her the First Lady of Human Rights, but the First Lady to The World.  We pray our efforts honor the strides made by Mrs. Roosevelt and that we answer Eleanor’s charge: “It’s Up To The Women.”

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