Via Zoom and In-Person Monday, November 20, 2023 @ 6:00 pm EST
Photo: NARA
A discussion of the women who supported Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins in their pathbreaking endeavors to rescue the nation and create a better future. The panel will feature preeminent Eleanor Roosevelt biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook and Roosevelt House historian Deborah Gardner, and will be moderated by professor emerita of American history at Columbia University Alice Kessler-Harris.
When Eleanor Roosevelt and Frances Perkins went to Washington in March 1933, they did so with the support of millions of women who had voted for FDR’s promise of a “New Deal”. As Labor Secretary, Perkins launched some of the New Deal’s most consequential programs, which the First Lady then promoted in her speeches and columns. Those initiatives included the Civilian Conservation Corps, Social Security, minimum wage, worker’s compensation, unemployment insurance, and a ban on child labor.
Blanche Wiesen Cook (’62) is Distinguished Professor of History and Women’s Studies at John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and former vice-president for research at the American Historical Association. Her definitive three-volume award-winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt was called “monumental and inspirational…[a] grand biography” by the New York Times.
Deborah Gardner has served as the Roosevelt House Historian and Curator since 2010. She is an expert on the history of the Roosevelts in New York and their New Deal associates, among them Frances Perkins, and has curated numerous exhibits on Roosevelt history. She is an active member of the New York City chapter of the Living New Deal.
Alice Kessler-Harris, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor Emerita of American History at Columbia University, Professor Emerita in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and former president of the Organization of American Historians, specializes in the history of American labor and the comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of women and gender. In 2020, she was honored with the “Intelligence and Courage Award” from the Frances Perkins Center.
The Living New Deal documents the vast legacy the New Deal (1933-1942) left to America
and the spirit of public service that inspired it.
We welcome your support.
