Eleanor Roosevelt

by Jan

My choice is a woman I have always identified with mainly because of her stance against racial discrimination and because she was never thought of as beautiful, but was still much admired by many. I have never been one to get tied up in politics, but if anyone could make me want to get active it would be Eleanor Roosevelt.

Courtesy of Biography.com:

"First Lady, humanitarian; born in New York City (niece of Theodore Roosevelt). Shy and insecure as a child, she was educated privately, and in 1905 she married Franklin D. Roosevelt (a distant cousin).

"The first sign of her abilities came during World War I when she worked for the Red Cross; after her husband's polio attack and paralysis in 1921, she took an ever more active role on his behalf in New York State politics. With his election as president, she emerged as a truly public figure in her own right, traveling throughout the country, promoting her causes - particularly those helping women, children, and the poor - giving radio broadcasts, and writing a syndicated column, "My Day" (starting in 1935).

"Although both ridiculed and vilified by some, she continued to speak out even when her views - such as those on racial discrimination - put her well in advance of her husband. During World War II she traveled abroad to visit U.S. servicemen, and following the death of Franklin (1945), she embarked on a new career, serving as a delegate to the UN General Assembly (1945--51), and serving as chairperson of the UN's Human Rights Commission (1946--51) that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She remained an active force in Democratic politics and served as a sort of unofficial American ambassador to the world of the downtrodden. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy reappointed her to the U.S. delegation to the UN; she also chaired the Kennedy administration's Commission on the Status of Women.

"By the time of her death, she was recognized as the most active and influential of all the U.S. presidents' wives and had earned the sobriquet, 'first lady of the world.'"