Eleanor Roosevelt

10 Pages 2477 Words

the Finance Committee of the Women’s Division of the Democratic State Committee. She was fast becoming a prominent public figure, much to her amazement.
In 1928 at the Democratic National Convention Governor Al Smith asked Eleanor to run the entire national Women’s activities in his national campaign for president. Smith soon requested more as he asked Franklin to run for Governor of New York. Eleanor now was exerting more force into Smith’s campaign than her husband’s and even though her husband won she seemed more disappointed that Smith lost.
Now back in New York Eleanor had a new job to do and that was to assist her husband in his duties as governor of New York. Eleanor welcomed feminine groups who were formerly unwelcome in the state now in with open arms. Trying to advance their social programs with Franklin and the legislature. Eleanor helped her husband by taking unannounced inspection trips to state institutions and reporting directly to her husband.
It soon became clear that Franklin was ready to take the next step and run for president, as he was the leading candidate for the Democratic Party. When the dust had settled Franklin had won the election and Eleanor was heading for the White House. Just before her husband’s inauguration Eleanor published the book It’s up to the Women and also accepted an offer to edit a magazine called Babies-Just Babies.
Once she became First Lady Eleanor became better known to Americans. She held press conferences in the White House that were for women only, she said, “ So few women reporters, many of whom are just as capable of handling the big stories as the men, get a chance to be front page writers.”(Weinstein 760) At first male White House correspondents disliked the idea but soon they wanted to go as well. Eleanor never allowed them. Eleanor followed this policy in almost every possible way. The Gridiron often gave an all-male dinner and invited m...