Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt was born on October 11, 1884 in New York City. She was a niece to Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, and she became first lady to Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, she was also the mother of 6 children. Eleanor Roosevelt was the woman who really made an impact being the first lady, and truly used her position to be a leader and make a difference. Many of her accomplishments include being a humanitarian, civic leader, working for the welfare of youth, women, african americans, and the poor. She also found jobs and opened factories to help out the jobless, including putting women in the work force, and she fought to end child labor. When her job as first lady ended in 1945 because of her husbands death, she still did not stop her duty to help. She became a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, specializing in humanitarian, social, and cultural issues. In 1948, she drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirmed life, liberty, and equality internationally for all people regardless of race, creed or color. Also, she helped in the establishment of the state of Israel and attempted negotiations with the Soviet Union. She was more involved with the help of women's rights and having them treated equally in every aspect. One quote from Eleanor was "A woman is like a tea bag, you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water".
I believe that Eleanor Roosevelt had defiantly found her voice and used it to lead and to help others. In Covey's book, one of the birth rights is the power to choose, and I think that Eleanor Roosevelt chose to use her position as first lady to do good and to become a leader and fight for others rights. She had transformed the "first lady" position into something powerful instead of just the presidents wife. She was labeled as the "first activist first lady", and since then women who later became first lady have for the most part been leaders as well. Eleanor also believed heavily that people had the right to choose and have freedom, so she fought for them almost her whole life.
Another birth right Eleanor Roosevelt had in relation to Covey's book was of moral authority, she cared so much for people and that it was immoral to treat them like slaves, poor, or inhumane. She wanted a world where everyone was treated with equality and had the freedom to do what they wanted. She wanted women to be treated morally in that they could work where they wanted, vote for who they wanted, and be of equal to men, and she wanted the African Americans to be free to do the same. She also wanted children to be free from child labor, and for there to be enough jobs so the poor could earn an income. She cared very much for the morals of others, so she had that quality of moral authority to her.
Lastly I think Eleanor had the emotional intelligence about her because she cared so much for the sake of others. In Covey's book he says words like "social appropriateness", "sensitivity" and "empathy" when describing a character of emotional intelligence, and to me, Eleanor related most to that quality. She had a passion and a caring ability to her that really set her apart from any other first lady, and that is what made her such a great leader. Eleanor Roosevelt died in 1962 at age 78. I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role. -Eleanor Roosevelt