Read these two short excerpts from “What I Hope to Leave Behind.” Most women dream first of a happy family. The instinct for reproduction is inborn in most of us. I find I have a sense of satisfaction whenever I learn that there is a new field being opened up where women may enter. A woman will rejoice in her freedom to enter on a new career. Based on these two excerpts, you can surmise that Eleanor Roosevelt.
wanted to acknowledge the importance of motherhood while also encouraging women to pursue new opportunities.
believed that training for a career was important, but raising children was more important.
wanted to suggest that job skills must be learned, while motherhood is instinctual.
believed that women should pursue new fields, while her audience assumed that women should raise children.