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How Did Eleanor Roosevelt Contribute To Social Reform

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During the Great Depression every aspect of American life was greatly affected. The low spirits of the American people were soon transformed when Franklin D. Roosevelt began his presidency. While in office, Franklin D. Roosevelt created a package of social programs known as the New Deal. The New Deal was developed to help raise the spirits of Americans, find a solution for unemployment, and assist those that were in need. Throughout Roosevelt’s presidency, his wife Eleanor Roosevelt played the role of being both his eyes and ears. This paper will focus on Eleanor Roosevelt and the role that she played with the New Deal during the Great Depression. Eleanor Roosevelt was committed to social reform before taking on the role as the First …show more content…

Under the guidance of Marie Souvestre Eleanor was able to come out of her shell and lose the image of an outsider, the outside she was while growing up in New York. Marie Souvestre “was primarily a moralist in politics, and she was concerned more with social justice than with social analysis. In this regard she strengthened Eleanor’s disposition toward a social idealism based on intuitive reason and the promptings of her heart rather than intellectual analysis.” It was through traveling with Marie Souvestre that Eleanor gained an understanding of what it was like to be an independent woman. Upon Eleanor’s return to the United States in 1902 she decided to become an active reformer during the Progressive Era, going against her grandmother’s wishes to make her social debut in New York. Influenced by Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor learned the importance of structured political reform and fair labor practices that would benefit citizens of a different socio-economic class than from the one that she was accustomed to while growing up. Working alongside women of her same socio-economic class led to the formation of the Junior League for the Promotion of Settlement Movements. Settlement Houses were vital to immigrant communities as it taught them basic skills and lessons. It was in the Lower

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