Excerpt from "American Women: The Report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women," which was presented to President John F. Kennedy on October 11, 1963
Reprinted from American Women: The Report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women and Other Publications of the Commission.
Published in 1965.

"Greater development of women's potential and fuller use of their present abilities can greatly enhance the quality of American life. We have made recommendations to this end."

President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women on December 14, 1961. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), one of the most influential woman in America at the time, chaired the twenty-member commission until her death in 1962. The president requested the commission to analyze employment policies affecting women, such as labor laws pertaining...