Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History: Eleanor Roosevelt

Seldom does a first lady in the United States rise above the honor of being someone else's wife, given the power and prestige that comes with the Oval Office. Eleanor Roosevelt is an exception to that rule, and therefore she will be the first in our series on inspirational women. Provoked by a book given to me recently, (thank you Marcia) with the saying "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History," this article discusses Eleanor Roosevelt as a complex woman, doing the best she could with the gifts and support structure she had at hand.
She definitely made history. Born in 1884, over the course of her life she was awarded a Doctorate of Human Letters, Doctor of Laws, the Nobel Peace Prize and the United Nations Human Rights distinction. She also was not considered for her times to be well-behaved. Looking at her life from the lens of the 21st century woman she would be seen as the first blogger writing a regular column entitled My Day, six out of seven days a week for almost 30 years. Active in the way that many modern women are active she balanced a life that included the politics (speaking out on political issues where policy impacted people living in poverty), the war effort (working for the Red Cross and traveling to support and bolster the troops), writing (several autobiographies), and the duties of motherhood (six children including the first son who died in infancy).
While many women today may take on this variety of tasks, her example was rare in her time. This does not mean she led an easy life, although a privileged one. Her mother died when she was eight with her father (reportedly an alcoholic) following two years later. She also overcame personal shyness, going on to be such a great public speaker that Pres. Kennedy made her a delegate to the United Nations just a year before she died in 1962.
Like all women who are not well-behaved, she was the brunt of many scandalous tales (some with foundation, some not). She was disliked as much as she was revered. She was seen as "unnatural" by small-minded people who considered the norm as equating to what is natural in the world, not being prepared for or embracing the evolutionary potential of human beings unless it suits them. Eleanor not only lectured, but encouraged women through all female press conferences, and hosting her own radio show.
Eleanor Roosevelt deserves whatever distinctions are offered her. She remains an inspirational woman long after her death, with her example continuing to demonstrate the potential of overcoming both a difficult beginning and the small-minded norms of the times. We'll close with a quote from her newspaper column, "It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death."
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Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart is the topic of this third installment in the series, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History. Because the purpose of the series is to be inspirational to women, and while there are enormous opportunities to discuss women in history, a thread that will run throughout all of these articles is that of the woman who has to push against the norms of her life, her family, or her society in order to be truly herself. This takes a particular brand of courage, to know in your heart that you are different and to be with reconciled to that difference while pushing to make your dreams come true. Amelia Earhart would therefore have to be one of the inspirational women highlighted here.
Getting Past a Difficult Childhood
As is true of many famous people who have gone beyond the norm, her early life was not an easy one. Amelia was born in 1897 at her grandparent's house in Kansas, and while her grandfather was one of the leading citizens of this small town, there was always a push and pull between the grandparents and her father. Always a tomboy, some relate that she may have been a trial for her otherwise timid grandmother and ailing grandfather. Stories differ, but it seems that Amelia and her sister did not actually live with their parents until she was about 10, when her father began to drink publicly. By all accounts, her teenage years were scarred by the difficult challenges of having everyone be aware that her father was a drunkard. By 1914 her mother had left her father (a difficult thing in those days) and Amelia and her sister experienced loss of social status, while being the object of gossip and pity.
Amelia trained as a nurse and worked in a Voluntary a Detachment at the end of the First World War from 1917 to 1918. In her own words: There for the first time I realized what the world war meant. Instead of new uniforms and brass bands, I saw only the result of four years desperate struggle; men without arms and legs, men who are paralyzed, and men who were blind." When the war ended she pursued medicine as a career, but she lost her heart to aviation in 1920.
From Stunt Shows to Flight
Again accounts differ, but it seems that Amelia first enjoyed aviation as a hobby, watching stunt routines for entertainment at local fairgrounds, as was popular at the time. She took her first ride in 1920 with a barnstormer pilot named Frank Hawks. But she is quoted as saying, "As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly." And it seems as though that dream came from her very soul, and she never looked back. Flight in those days, as now, was expensive, and she had to work hard save her money and do things in small doses. Apparently she did odd jobs and put together her first $1000 -- for flying lessons. Flight in the 1920s was very different than it is today with the small planes occasionally crashing, and Amelia's record was no different. Nevertheless by 1921 she was flying solo and by the next year she had purchased her own plane. By 1928 her hobby became her vocation and she became (although just as a passenger) the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane. The publisher who wrote an article on that flight, George Putnam, became her husband in 1931. And by 1932 she had crossed the Atlantic flying solo and setting a new record of 13 hours and 30 minutes for which she received a medal from the United States President at the time, Herbert Hoover.
What was it like to be a woman in a man's territory in the early 1900s? We can get some glimpse of the courage and tenacity of Amelia Earhart from her own words.
Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do......The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward......Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.....Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it.
As most people are aware, Amelia's story ends in tragedy and mystery. As she tried to circumnavigate the globe, the Coast Guard lost communication with her plane and it is assumed she went down, although the remains of the plane were never found. Amelia's own words sum up the challenges all women face as they lead uncommon lives:
Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.
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Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History: Margaret Sanger

There is no question that when we look into the lives of inspirational women, every woman born in the Western world today has been influenced by Margaret Sanger. The fact that as women we enjoy reproductive rights stems from a the vigilant hard work of this very controversial woman. She is still controversial (the web being filled with claims of racism, eugenics, etc.) and this is indicative of the time she lived and the kinds of ideas that thinking people were hashing about during the early 1900s. But who was this woman who had such effect? This article tries to unpack the life and ideas of this inspirational woman.
Difficulties of women in childbirth, and strong radical political activities were used to gather through out Margaret's life. Born Margaret Louise Higgins she was the middle child in a family of 11 children. Her father was known as a freethinking man and his politics must have had influenced her, as did watching her mother died at age 50 after 18 pregnancies. Her own reproductive life was made more difficult by frequent bouts of tuberculosis, although she had three children with her husband William Sanger. Two other influences come into play as she and her husband enjoyed the radical political intellectual world of Greenwich Village in New York City in the early 1900s, at the same time she worked as a visiting nurse in city tenements.
Who knows or understands the difficulties taken on during a single-handed pursuit of what you think is right? That both of the Sanger stopped at reproductive rights were right is clear when you follow their history from 1910 to 1920. First Margaret wrote a pamphlet called family limitation, at the same time she wrote articles and a free publication known as the woman radical. This brought her up against the federal postal obscenity laws of the time and she flees to England while her husband remained in the US distributing her work. In 1915 when he was arrested she came home to face the charges against her but personal tragedy in the form of the death of her five-year-old daughter aroused public sympathy and the charges were dismissed. While in Europe, she visited Holland, thinking back to the United States with a sense of what birth control could be. This prompted her work in public health resulting in lines of Jewish Italian immigrant women crowding into our clinics daily.
Courageous work in the fight of the norm of the time always brings backlash from the people in power. As was true with many suffragettes, Margaret and her sister were convicted, JL, and engaged in hunger strikes. The publicity surrounding these activities made birth control a matter of public debate, thus turning the tide so that by the 1920s public favor towards her ideas began to make legislative change possible. Her work branched out from the United States to the international level, where she lectured to large audiences throughout the rest of her life. It is sobering to note that it was not until 1965, a few months after her death, that the Supreme Court of the United States made birth control legal for married couples.
Nevertheless, the controversy that caused her racist and points to her eugenics philosophies are not wrong when viewing her with the eyes of the 21st century woman. And I think that is one potential outcome of single-minded focus -- it becomes easier to lose sight of the broader picture, in this case human rights. Nor did she consider the rights of the unborn child when she discussed abortion. These issues are still being sorted out by cultures around the world. In his book,Leadership without Easy Answers, one Heifetz discusses the changes brought forth by Margaret Sanger as an example of informal leadership. One person, doggedly pursuing what they believe is right in one area can create great change because they don't have to be responsible for the outcome of anything other than what they are focused on.
This is a different type of inspirational story, then the previous article in this series on Roosevelt. Margaret devoted her life to one thing, being a formal leadership, had to consider the broader range of people's needs and ideas. Nevertheless, both women lived lives that remain inspirational many years after their death.
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When Life Is Frustrating

Do you hate it when you can't find the things you want? That can be downright frustrating. I loved various tasty spice mixes in a certain country where I served God as a missionary. Now returning back to Canada, I can't find those same spice mixes anywhere, and my food just does not taste the same. Life can certainly be much more frustrating than not finding spice mixes.
Life can be unpredictable and hard with broken friendships, loss of health, loss of jobs, loss of homes, broken marriages, betrayal, misunderstandings, loss of a child, death of a loved one. And you know how the list goes on. Such things are very hard on us and could lead to depression.
But God does not want us to give ourselves over to depression. He wants us to completely trust in Him. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
Our life situations will not always feel good and they can honestly cut us to the core of our hearts with much pain. We don't always know why things seem to be going so badly for us, and sometimes God will only reveal the answers to us in Heaven. But in such situations we must believe that God knows what is best and that things are working out for our good, because He is wise and knows what is best for us. Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
When life is always changing and throwing many disasters our way, we can be sure that God is unchanging and will always be there for us because He loves us. Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and for ever."
Visit my website at http://ourchurch.com/member/g/greatthings
Article by Tina Coates
I am a Christian writer of articles, poems, Christian romance novels and books for Christian women and girls. I have served God on behalf of over one hundred nations of the world so I am able to bring an international flavor and much experience to my writing. If you as a Christian publisher would like me to write for you and would pay me fairly, please contact me at juliamnl249@gmail.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tina_Coates
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Why Every Mom Should Take a Mother's Day Out

What is a Mother's Day Out?

A mother's day out can be as simple as leaving the kids with your husband to have a day to yourself. Or it can be a regularly scheduled program you are signed up with at a local church. Maybe it's taking a few minutes to read your favorite website. A Mother's Day Out is a time for mom to walk away and regroup for a bit. Run errands, engage in activities that are difficult to enjoy with children underfoot, and rest!

Who can benefit from having a Mother's Day Out?

I am of the firm belief every mother needs some time to herself. From time to time we all have those moments where we just need a break! Especially for those moms who have young children who need so much of mom's time and energy every single day.

Do you feel guilty taking a break? Please don't. Every human being is allowed some time to rest and recharge, just because you're a mom doesn't mean that doesn't apply to you! If you do feel guilty, make the time productive. Eventually you'll ease into a routine and look forward to your break. You'll find that you return to your children refreshed and energized. A mother's day out could be just the thing you need to increase the quality of your time with your children.

What are some advantages of a regular Mother's Day Out?
Socialization for your childrenOpportunity to engage in social settings child free for momHelp with separation anxiety. If you leave and come back, kids learn to trust that it's okay for mom to leave. They know that you will be back.This will be a helpful skill when they go into school full time!Ability to run errands and complete chores quickly and get them out of the way so you can spend more quality time with your children (instead of "mommy is mopping...go to your room!").Time to rest and recharge! Even moms need a time-out sometimes!

What if traditional Mother's Day Out programs are out of my price range??

Switch off with your spouse. Each of you gets a certain amount of time every week to themselves. Or switch off with another mom. You can watch her kids while she takes some time to herself and vice versa. Enlist grandparents to watch their grandkids on a regular basis so you can get some time to yourself.

Whether you pay for a program, read your favorite mom blog or just leave the kids with dad for a few hours...make it a regular occurrence. Knowing you have a designated time to complete tasks, rest and relax can increase your patience and the quality of the time you have with your children throughout the week!

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