Eleanor …show more content…
All of her earnings usually surpassed the president’s salary. She gave most of her profit to different charities around the world (Freedman 2). Whenever she requested to drive herself, opposed to a chauffeur or a police escort, the Secret service insisted that carried a pistol out of fear for her safety (Freedman 2). “I do not mean by this that I am an expert shot. I only wish I were. . . My opportunities for shooting have been far and few between, but if the necessity arose, I do know how to use a pistol (Freedman 2).” She had come a long way since her days as a shy child who was “always afraid of something (Freedman 2).” Both of her parents died before she reached the age of 10. She grew up at a time where misogyny was at its peak; a woman's life was dominated by her husbands interests and needs, and where the wife was assigned stereotypical domestic duties. For her active role in public policy, Eleanor was heavily criticized by some. However, she was praised by others; nowadays she is referred to as a leader of women's and civil rights, as well as one of the first public officials to share important problems of the world through the mass …show more content…
She further accompanied her husband in his tour immediately after the war’s settle, touring battlefields, and returning as part of Wilson’s presidential party that went to Europe to decide the terms of the war’s end (Freedman 147).
After Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945, Eleanor became a delegate to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly (Maney 1). In 1946, she was elected chairman of the UN's Human Rights Commission, part of the Economic and Social Council (Maney 1). She helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; In 1961, she returned to the General Assembly (Maney 1). A few months later, President John F. Kennedy made her head of the Commission on the Status of Women (Maney 1). In conclusion, Eleanor was one of the most important women in United States history. She accomplished many great things in United States history, from fighting for civil rights, to changing the role of the first lady forever. Eleanor died of aplastic anemia, tuberculosis and heart failure on November 7, 1962, at the age of 78. In the end, her life was exactly as she would have wished it to be; a life spent, wholly and tirelessly, in service to others. That is why Eleanor will continue to go down as one of the most important women in United States