GBH Openvault

Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; What Status For Women?

Part of From the Vault. Part of GBH and the President’s Commission on the Status of Women.

06/04/1962

Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt hosts a discussion on a newly created President’s Commission on the Status of Women created with executive order 10980 in the Kennedy administration December 14, 1961-October 11, 1963. Mrs. Roosevelt interviews President John F. Kennedy at the White House on his hopes for the new commission of which Roosevelt had been appointed Chair. Roosevelt and Kennedy discuss women attaining higher public office and careers, the problem of childcare in relation to women seeking higher employment status, housewives increasing their contributions to society, and the future of equal pay legislation. Roosevelt leads a 40 minute panel discussion with Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg; Dr. Mirra Komarovsky, Sociologist at Barnard College, Agda Rossel, Representative to the United Nations for Sweden; and Thomas Mendenhall President of Smith College. The group discusses daycare policies in the United States in comparison to Sweden, day care and the effects of such on child development, effects of motherhood on women’s employment, prejudice toward women in college curriculums, work opportunities, educational opportunities for older women, and equal and adequate pay for American workers. Summary and select metadata for this record was submitted by Maureen Mann Tannetta. Program opens with a ten minute segment in which President John F. Kennedy is interviewed one-on-one by Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House in Washington, DC. Balance of program, Eleanor Roosevelt moderates; Guests: Arthur Goldberg, United States Secretary of Labor; Agda Rossel, Swedish Ambassador to the United Nations; Thomas Mendenhall, President of Smith College; Mirra Komarovsky, Head of the Department of Sociology at Barnard College, author of Women in the Modern World: Their Education and Their Dilemmas.


License Clip

More material may be available from this program at the GBH Archives. If you would like research access to the collection at GBH, please email archive_requests@wgbh.org.

Series
Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt
Program
What Status For Women?
Program Number

310

Series Description

Roundtable discussion of foreign and domestic affairs featuring leading political, academic, and journalistic experts. Series was hosted by Eleanor Roosevelt and was filmed on location at Brandies University. Series release date: 1959

Program Description

Program opens with a ten minute segment in which President John F. Kennedy is interviewed one-on-one by Eleanor Roosevelt at the White House in Washington, DC.

Balance of program, Eleanor Roosevelt moderates; Guests: Arthur Goldberg, United States Secretary of Labor; Agda Rossel, Swedish Ambassador to the United Nations; Thomas Mendenhall, President of Smith College; Mirra Komarovsky, Head of the Department of Sociology at Barnard College, author of Women in the Modern World: Their Education and Their Dilemmas.

Duration

00:59:07

Asset Type

Broadcast program

Media Type

Video

Subjects
Equal Pay
Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
United States Government
Women's Rights
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963
Women's Labor Force
Genres
Talk Show
Topics
Public Affairs
Contributors
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962 (Host)
Morgenthau, Henry, III (Executive Producer)
Nichols, Gene (Director)
Braude, Beatrice (Producer)
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 (Guest)
Mendenhall, Thomas (Guest)
Rossel, Agda (Guest)
Berger, Clarence Q. (Other (see note))
Goldberg, Arthur (Guest)
Komarovsky, Mirra (Guest)
Jones, Bob (Narrator)
Lockwood, Ruth (Assistant Researcher)
Publication Information
Courtesy of Thirteen/WNET New York and WGBH Boston
Citation
Chicago: “Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; What Status For Women?,” 06/04/1962, GBH Archives, accessed March 29, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_285B9C3362534FFF8494B95922E3240B.
MLA: “Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; What Status For Women?.” 06/04/1962. GBH Archives. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_285B9C3362534FFF8494B95922E3240B>.
APA: Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; What Status For Women?. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_285B9C3362534FFF8494B95922E3240B
If you have more information about this item, we want to know! Please contact us, including the URL.