How political was Eleanor Roosevelt before FDR contracted polio?
The seeds of ER’s activism were planted in 1903 when she volunteered to work at the College Settlement on Rivington Street in Manhattan and joined the National Consumer’s League (NCL), which pushed for better working conditions, particularly for women and children. These experiences opened her eyes and whetted her appetite for the activities in which she would later immerse herself. Yet, once her children were born, ER, encouraged by SDR, focused on her children and charity boards. Unlike many of the women with whom she would later work, ER only grew interested in politics in 1919. She was not a suffragist and rarely participated in FDR’s campaign activities. But by 1920, ER had become a political activist. Three elements spurred her political development: World War I, FDR’s affair with Lucy Mercer, and her friendships with Louis Howe and a group of women activists, most notably Esther Lape and Elizabeth Reed. The horrors of war compelled ER to work for the Red Cross and a canteen for
