ER and the Office of Civilian Defense

Eleanor Roosevelt was originally skeptical of taking a formal position in the government because she feared that her role as the president’s wife would attract criticism to the OCD. By the end of the summer of 1941 however, she saw the need for more organization at the Office of Civilian Defense and agreed to take a position as an assistant director operating out of the Washington office. In a New York Times article from September 14, 1941, LaGuardia is quoted as saying “In the appointment of Mrs. Roosevelt we have America’s No. 1 Volunteer.” ER went to work at OCD at the end of September 1941.

Almost instantly, ER’s fears were realized and her involvement at OCD proved controversial. Until ER accepted a role at OCD, no president’s wife had held an official government position. In fact, no first lady since ER has held a government position while her husband was in office. This can most likely be attributed to the noisy response of her critics, which peaked when she appointed her friend, Mayris Chaney, as a director in the Physical Fitness Division. Criticism of her “frivolous” spending and favoritism in appointments rose to such a level that ER resigned from her position at the OCD in February of 1942. On her February 22 episode of “Over Our Coffee Cups” radio series she explained her decision to resign:

I do not want a program which I consider vitally important to the conduct of the war, and to the wellbeing of the people during a period of crisis, to suffer because what I hope is a small but very vocal group of unenlightened men are now able to renew under the guise of patriotism and economy the age-old fight for the privileged few against the good of the many...I have resigned because I do not want to bring on a good program and on good and valued public servants the attacks and criticisms which are bound to be made on some of us in this fight. But if there has to be a fight, I'm glad I'm enlisted as a common soldier with the many…

While her work with the OCD was short-lived, she remained dedicated to promoting homefront volunteer activities.