The Extraordinary Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt was an innovative leader. She held fast to her ideals of equality between races and genders and in her moral convictions. As First Lady of the United States, she was the first to hold a press conference for female journalists. She raised many eyebrows as became her husband’s legs taking on tasks never before attempted by a woman in her position. She changed history in her insistence for the first woman to be appointed to the presidential cabinet and as a diplomat to the United Nations with the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Rights. Her leadership philosophies have been timeless and exemplary. This paper is an exploration of those philosophies in comparison of findings from a selection of five studies.

2018

Greenleaf (2002/1977), the source of the term "servant leadership," acknowledges a lack of nurturing or caring leaders in all types of modern organizations. Leaders and potential future leaders in today's society need servant leader role-models they can study in order to develop their own servant leadership. In this paper, the author explores Eleanor Roosevelt's life using Spears' (2010) ten characteristics of servant leadership as an analytical lens and determines that Roosevelt functioned as a servant leader throughout her lifetime. The author argues that Eleanor Roosevelt's servant leadership functions as a timeless model for leaders in modern society. Currently, a lack of literature exploring the direct link between Eleanor Roosevelt and servant leadership exists. The author hopes to fill in this gap and encourage others to contribute to this area of study further. Overall, this paper aims at providing practical information for leaders, particularly educational leaders, to utilize in their development of servant leadership, in addition to arguing why Eleanor Roosevelt serves as a model to study further in the field of servant leadership.

Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 2018

In December 2018 all peoples and all nations of the world can celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ‘common standard of achievement’ of rights and freedoms, the document that the first Chair of the Human Rights Commission, Eleanor Roosevelt, called an international magna carta for all mankind

2019

She was meek and fragile, but established and headed a global religious community. <br> She was humble in spirit, but dared to touch, nurse and serve the wounded lepers,from whom the world walked away. She opened the door of mercy and unceasinglove to the dying and the destitute on the streets, to whom the world shut its doors. She walked through paths of thorns and roads of chaos, but had clear plans to reach her destiny. Her clean smile on a wrinkled face, won the hearts of her opponents. She preferred an unnoticed and quiet life, but the world turned its eyes on her. She came as a foreigner to India, but stands today as an honor and pride of India. Merely a channel of peace and love? No, Not just. She is a sign of daring valor, undying courage and magnanimity. She is Mother Teresa, Mother of millions, a Nobel Laureate, a Saint, an Inspiration and an Icon of Woman mpowerment.

2018

Greenleaf (2002/1977), the source of the term “servant leadership,” acknowledges a lack of nurturing or caring leaders in all types of modern organizations. Leaders and potential future leaders in today’s society need servant leader role-models they can study in order to develop their own servant leadership. In this paper, the author explores Eleanor Roosevelt’s life using Spears’ (2010) ten characteristics of servant leadership as an analytical lens and determines that Roosevelt functioned as a servant leader throughout her lifetime. The author argues that Eleanor Roosevelt’s servant leadership functions as a timeless model for leaders in modern society. Currently, a lack of literature exploring the direct link between Eleanor Roosevelt and servant leadership exists. The author hopes to fill in this gap and encourage others to contribute to this area of study further. Overall, this paper aims at providing practical information for leaders, particularly educational leaders, to utili...

The role of the First Lady is not defined in the Constitution and its nature has always been contextual.There is no objective framework according to which we could evaluate theindividual performances of the First Ladies. Many of the First Ladies spent their years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue almost unnoticed by the U.S. public, a lot of them carried out only the fundamental duties of the First Lady, but some of them did leave a significant mark in history.

2010

{Excerpt} For Eleanor Roosevelt, helping people achieve better lives by taking individual responsibility and then acting collectively to remedy problems was a cornerstone of democracy, in good and bad economic times, during war and peace. She saw these convictions embodied in the labor movement. Labor leaders, including Walter Reuther, the visionary young president of the emerging United Automobile Workers, earned her praise and became her close friends. She criticized leaders who abused their power, but never wavered in her support for the rank and file. One of her adversaries, however, the influential journalist Westbrook Pegler, attacked ER as a dilettante and her labor allies as thugs. ER's core principles of workplace democracy, however, remained her model for democracy in the country and around the world. In 1961 ER told the AFL-CIO convention, "The labor movement-and perhaps I can say my movement, too, because I think sometimes I work as hard as any of you do-I feel that it is part of our job to keep alive the ideals that you started with, the ideals of really helping the people to better conditions, to a better way of life which is part of the basis of democracy." The story of how Eleanor Roosevelt became a union member, what it meant then, and why it matters now begins with a most unusual gathering on the shores of the Hudson River.

European journal of American studies, 2017

The overt aim of this collection has been to provide a preliminary account of Eleanor Roosevelt's multifaceted attempts to reshape the image of the United States abroad, her foreign entanglements, and, in particular, her formal and informal interactions with Europe. In dealing with such an ambitious goal, all the contributors have pointed out that one of Mrs. Roosevelt's main (public) diplomacy efforts was to translate the old demands of a certain American liberalism-i.e. internationalism, multilateralism, fair cooperation among the nations, and so on-into an effective and mutually enriching transnational, namely transatlantic, exchange.

1982

r. eginning in 1986, First Lady Eleanor RooseVelt wrote an unprecedent d newspaper column that1 provided readers with a detailed recital of her daily activities. Titled "My Day," the column gave behindtheLscenes glimpses of White Hou'se life and served-'as'a platform from which the.First Lady could state her personal views, The column was a Mixture.of political,oratory, public relations for 'President Roosevelt's ,New Deal, and the,perceptions,of an individual playing °a leading role in the drama of her time. During, it's first'. ..year, "My Day'`' addressed humanitarian concerns such as poverty, unemployment, conservation,, and the role of women, but much of it could be read as ingenious political propaganda during an election year. The` column gave the Roosevelt administration'a highly flexible weapon in its political arsenal,.. and Mes..Roosevelt and the President most certaittay conferred on some of i'cg contents. Numerous columns duriig the years of World War II contained patriotic messages, descriptions,of Mrs. Roosevelt's :travels to various war areas, letters from servicemen, and advice from the Office of War Information. Beyond its political overtones, "My Day" sent a series of mixed. messageg regarding the pbsidOn of women in society. While the column failed to o4-fer't role model of*muchwmeaning to the average woman; nevertheless showed a middle7aged woman continually on the move, 'establishing a. place competitive occupation of" journalism, and 'defining a role for herself outside the customary boundaries.of her position. (HTH *

Maine Policy Review, 2003