cover image Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and New Deal Politics

Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and New Deal Politics

Susan Ware. Yale University Press, $47 (342pp) ISBN 978-0-300-03820-0

In this life of a neglected figure of Depression Era feminism, New York University historian Ware makes a useful contribution to the history of American women's struggle for equality. Molly Dewson, longtime companion of influential feminist Polly Porter (here Ware makes use of the Porter-Dewson scrapbooks) and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, emerged from her role as head of the National Consumers League in the 1920s to become, somewhat reluctantly at first, a ""New Deal politician'' handling important patronage matters for FDR. Personal modesty as well as her gender kept her out of the headlines that marked the careers of such male FRBCs (For Roosevelt Before Chicago) as Louis Howe, Jim Farley and others. Readers should welcome Ware's spotlight on Dewson, which widens to disclose wonderfully human views of FDR and Eleanor and brings to life many virtually forgotten feminists of an era that threatens to fade into gray. Photos. (September)