"Behind every successful man, there is a strong woman"
In 1918, Woodrow Wilson recognized the role of women in World War I, and announced that it was due time their rights as full political citizens be recognized. Women had supported the war in many ways, selling war bonds, conserving food, sending relief supplies to Europe, and flooding to the industrial workplace. World War I led to several important advances for women, including the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920 giving the women the right to vote.
Woodrow Wilson expressed his appreciation, and support for women's suffrage in his 1918 address to congress:
"And what shall we say of the women,-of their instant intelligence, quickening every task that they touched; their capacity for organization and cooperation, which gave their action discipline and enhanced the effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks to which they had. never before set their hands; their utter self sacrifice alike in what they did and in what they gave? Their contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new lustre to the annals of American womanhood.
The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed achievement would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense practical services they have rendered the women of the country have been the moving spirits in the systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon every front with food and everything else that we had that might serve the common cause. The details of such a story can never be fully written, but we carry them at our hearts and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of such. "
Edith Bolling Galt Wilson – The Secret President
In 1919, Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke, and his wife Edith Wilson took over many of the routine duties and details of the Executive branch of the government. She decided which matters of state were important enough to bring to the bedridden president. "I studied every paper sent from the different Secretaries or Senators," she wrote later of her role, "and tried to digest and present in tabloid form the things that, despite my vigilance, had to go to the President. I, myself, never made a single decision regarding the disposition of public affairs. The only decision that was mine was what was important and what was not, and the very important decision of when to present matters to my husband."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29559
http://www.ww1propaganda.com/sites/default/files/3b52923u-1613.jpg?1311564207
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wilson
https://www.nwhm.org/html/exhibits/progressiveera/worldwarI.html
Raising Sheep on the White house lawn
During the war, Edith Wilson helped her husband raise sheep on the White house lawn. The flock, which numbered 48 at its peak, saved manpower by cutting the grass and earned $52,823 for the Red Cross through an auction of their wool.http://sirismm.si.edu/sia/image/SIA2010-1986.jpg
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