The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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HYDE PARK, Wednesday—If I took any long drive these days without encountering at least two storms, I should feel that the weather had forgotten to continue in its usual way. Yesterday we ran into two storms on the way in to New York and two storms on the way home!

Luckily while we were actually at the Girl Scouts Camp in the afternoon, no rain fell. It was a very lovely sight to see these young girls come down the path into what they call "The Green Cathedral" and seat themselves in a circle, with the flags of their various countries floating on the hillside behind them. Some of the girls wore their native costumes, the others were all in Girl Scout uniforms. The ceremonies were well carried out and I was impressed by the number of girls from foreign countries who spoke very good English, and by the impression one had of good looks. Health and youth in themselves are beautiful, but many of these girls had good features and lovely hair and eyes.

I think such meetings as these must help our international understanding and even in our own country bringing together Girl Scouts from different parts of the country, will do a great deal for national understanding.

This morning, Miss Rose Schneiderman, who is National President of the Women's Trade Union League, came up from New York to see me. She is much disturbed over the action taken at the Convention of the Federation of Business and Professional Women in Atlantic City in opposition to the women's charter and in favor of the equal rights amendment. I am a member of the Business and Professional Women's Federation, and I can quite see why they would favor absolute equality between men and women. They are trained professional workers, they can compete on an equal basis, they need no protection. But for the industrial worker, the situation is entirely different, and I believe in the attitude which has always been taken by the Women's Trade Union League which favors protection for women in industry. I think that if the public really understood the situation, they would treat this question from the point of view of the realities rather than accept a theory, which is a fine theory, but has no relation whatsoever to the realities of the situation for the industrial woman worker.

I wonder why the highly trained business and professional women do not develop their imagination sufficiently so that they can visualize this whole question from the point of view of another group of women. Before many years go by, I think we will have a course in our schools designed to develop in people an ability to imagine conditions which they have never experienced!

Some other friends came to lunch and we are about to go for a swim, having decided that whether you get wet in the pool or whether the water descends on you from above makes very little difference.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 12, 1937

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated August 11, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 11 August 1937, AERP, FDRL