If You Ask Me

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was an American politician, diplomat, writer, and activist. She is also the nation’s longest-serving First Lady (1933 to 1945). A committed advocate for democracy, civil rights, and social justice, she was tireless in her efforts to improve political, economic, and social conditions at home and abroad. She brought the same energy and devotion to her work at the United Nations where, as chair of the Human Rights Commission she played a key role in the creation and passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). A woman of her time who was also ahead of her time, she never gave up the struggle to create a better world because she believed that “lost causes are usually won in the end.”

Mary Jo Binker is a consulting editor for the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project at George Washington University. She has a master’s degree in history from George Mason University, where she is an adjunct professor. She was previously the director of the Oral History Program for the Women in Military Service to America Memorial Foundation in Arlington, Virginia. The recipient of the Evelyn Pugh Memorial Fellowship Award at George Mason University, Mary Jo publishes and lectures on the subjects of Eleanor Roosevelt, women’s history, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. Her work has appeared in Time and the Journal of White House History. She lives and works in Arlington, Virginia.

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