Eleanor Roosevelt Role Conflict

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was a blond caucasian female who was born into an affluent family. Her relationship with her parents were strained and dysfunctional. She never received love and affection from her mother, but conditional usefulness when she served her purpose. Yet, her relationship with her father although imperfect was the only positive and demonstrative presence in her life. Then when Eleanor was 8, her mother died from diphtheria and at the age of 10, her father succumbed to depression and alcoholism. She and her siblings became orphans. Eleanor's grandmother retained legal guardianship and raised her until the age of 15. Shortly after turning 15, she was sent to Allenswood Academy, where she attended for a period of three

The most noteworthy conflicts were balancing motherhood and her role as a political figure. For example, during her tenure as an activist, strangers and colleagues benefited from her affection, time and devotion. Whereas, her children did not and this ultimately negatively impacted her children's lives in their failed social relationships. Another role conflict that she experienced was her role as daughter-in-law and mother. Often, in public opinion Eleanor was branded as a bad mother, which was an unfair observation from outsiders which weren't privy to her authority being emasculated on a daily basis by her mother-in-law. Not to mention, her husband's culpability in the willful exclusion of his parental role in their children's lives. Additionally, the lack of a maternal instincts, which can be attributed to the dysfunctonal relationship with her mother was another hampering fact which precluded Eleanor to be the mother she wished she had been. Consquently, collectively these behaviors facilitated the relinquishing of her maternal influence to Sara and ultimately robbed her from her rightful place of being their