FSA Prep 5 Review: Not Without Her Consent

In her role as First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt was a nearly equal partner to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, frequently advising him on international affairs and women’s rights.

Eleanor Roosevelt used her role as First Lady to create positive change by living outside the limitations imposed on women of her time and speaking out forcefully against justice.

Eleanor Roosevelt made a lasting impact on America with her work with the United Nations, which was even more important than the example she set for future First Ladies.

Eleanor Roosevelt created a great deal of controversy as First Lady by being outspoken and independent, and most Americans today still reject her as a role model.

“Franklin’s polio attack in 1921, through which he lost the use of his legs, only increased his dependency on her, as well as his respect for her” (Para. 8).

"Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945, and his successor, Harry S. Truman, appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly" (Para. 13).

“She was a political player, urging her husband to support civil rights and privately opposing his order to intern Japanese Americans during World War II” (Para. 11).

Eleanor Roosevelt spoke out for those whom society cared less about at a time with women were not be speaking out at all" (Para. 12).

She gives several examples of the activities Eleanor engaged in that were atypical for women, and the negative response she received from many Americans.

She contrasts Eleanor Roosevelt’s outspokenness as First Lady with the more traditional relationship she had with Franklin earlier in their marriage.

She offers a thorough analysis of why previous First Ladies had not done enough to serve the American people.

She builds an argument that Eleanor Roosevelt was a strong advocate for civil rights and greatly influenced her husband to support this cause.

“Married women were not supposed to have careers, but Eleanor, in her first

year as First Lady, was determined to match her husband’s presidential salary” (Para. 9).

“She hosted a regular radio program and held 348 press conferences over the span of her husband’s 12 years in the White House. These press conferences were exclusively for female reporters; male reporters were banned from attending the press conferences in order to ensure that newspapers kept female reporters on staff to cover the conferences” (Para.10).

“Throughout Franklin D. Roosevelt’s terms in office, Eleanor traveled the country. She met with coal miners and with minorities, and she wrote in her daily newspaper column, ‘My Day,’ about her experiences” (Para. 11).

“When she wrote magazine articles and expressed her opinions, she was likely to cause uproar. The Los Angeles Times newspaper called for her to be forced to retire from public life, because of her public criticism of the discrimination that Japanese Americans were facing” (Para.12).