The DOL Newsletter - October 24, 2013:American Women

That was the title of the groundbreaking report issued 50 years ago this month that represented the deepest study of women in the workplace conducted to that date. The President's Commission on the Status of Women, the body that produced the report, was established by executive order of President John F. Kennedy. The woman behind the scenes, whose energy and determination convinced Kennedy to sign the executive order (the text of which she wrote herself), was Esther Peterson, assistant secretary of labor and director of the Women's Bureau. It was Peterson who urged President Kennedy to appoint Eleanor Roosevelt (whose husband appointed the very first woman to the U.S. Cabinet, our own Frances Perkins) as the chair of the commission. Sadly, Eleanor Roosevelt did not live to see the fruits of her work when the commission sent its final report to President Kennedy on Oct. 11, 1963, but she was optimistic that it signaled a major step forward in promoting opportunity for women. "Because I anticipate success in achieving full employment and full use of America's magnificent potential," she said before her death, "I feel confident that in

the years ahead many of the remaining outmoded barriers to women's aspirations will disappear." The report was conceived as an "invitation to action," and it outlined many recommendations for achieving equal opportunity in the workplace in areas such as education, employment and legal protections. Today, the department's Women's Bureau keeps the spirit of the commission alive, working to ensure that, as Kennedy put it, "women everywhere will have it within their power to develop their potential capacities to the maximum."

• Read "American Women"
• Listen to an NBC Special Report
• Read the Blog Post on Peterson
• View the Centennial Timeline
• View the Centennial Video