Eleanor Roosevelt and Progressivism
In many ways, Eleanor Roosevelt is the perfect example of
the early progressive
movement. She rejected Social Darwinism and embraced the
Social Gospel. She believed that the environment in which
a person lived played a key role in shaping that person's
economic and social fate and that when educated, people could
improve their own lives. She thought laissez-faire capitalism
was bad for the nation and harmful to individuals.
Like many women of her era, ER put her ideals into action.
She joined the settlement movement, volunteering in the Rivington
Street settlement. Although she stopped working at Rivington
Street after she married FDR
(at her mother-in-law's insistence), she continued to work
for progressive issues. She changed her mind and supported
woman suffrage. In 1919, she attended the International Conference
of Working Women and invited some of its key leaders to lunch,
beginning a lifelong friendship with many. By the early 1920s,
when she joined the National
Consumers League, the Women's
Trade Union League, the League of Women Voters, and the
City Club
of New York, ER typified progressivism. An active leader
in these groups, ER championed maximum hour, minimum wage,
and child labor laws; worker safety standards; and protective
legislation for women workers.
Teaching
Eleanor Roosevelt > Lesson Plans & Lecture Notes
This educational program was prepared by The
Eleanor Roosevelt Papers
with funding from the GE Fund through Save
America's Treasures.