When the history of women began to receive focused attention in the

Question

When the history of women began to receive focused attention in the 1970’, Eleanor Roosevelt was one of a handful of female Americans who were well known to both historians and the general public. Despite the evidence that she had been important in social reform circles before her husband was elected President and that she continued to advocate different causes than he did, she held a place in the public imagination largely because she was the wife of a particularly influential President. Her own activities were seen as preparing the way for her husband’s election or as a complement to his programs. Even Joseph Lash’s two volumes of Sympathetic biography, Eleanor and Franklin (1971) and Eleanor: The Years Alone (1972), reflected this assumption.

Lash’s biography revealed a complicated woman who sought through political activity both to flee inner misery and to promote causes in which she passionately believed. However, she still appeared to be an idiosyncratic figure, somehow self-generated not amenable to any generalized explanation. She emerged from the biography as a mother to the entire nation, or as a busybody, but hardly as a social type, a figure comprehensible in terms of broader social developments. But more recent work on the feminism of the post-suffrage years (following 1920) allows us to see Roosevelt in a different light and to bring her life into a more richly detailed context. Lois Scharf’s Eleanor Roosevelt, written in 1987, depicts a generation of privileged women, born in the late nineteenth century and maturing in the twentieth, who made the transition from old patterns of female association to new ones. Their views and their lives were full of contradictions. They maintained female social networks but began to integrate women into mainstream politics; they demanded equal treatment but also argued that women’s maternal responsibilities made them both wards and representatives of the public interest. Thanks to Scharf and others, Roosevelt’s activities—for example, her support both for labor laws protecting women and for appointments of women to high public office—have become intelligible in terms of this social context rather than as the idiosyncratic career of a famous man’s wife.

1. The passage as a whole is primarily concerned with which of the following?

(A) Changes in the way in which Eleanor Roosevelt’s life is understood
(B) Social changes that made possible the role played by Eleanor Roosevelt in social reform
(C) Changes in the ways in which historians have viewed the lives of American women
(D) Social changes that resulted from the activities of Eleanor Roosevelt
(E) Changes in the social roles that American women have played

2. Which of the following studies would proceed in a way most similar to the way in which, according to the passage. Scharf's book interprets Eleanor Roosevelt's career?

(A) An exploration of the activities of a wealthy social reformer in terms of the ideals held by the reformer
(B) A history of the leaders of a political party which explained how the conflicting aims of its individual leaders thwarted and diverted the activities of each leader
(C) An account of the legislative career of a conservative senator which showed his goals to have been derived from a national conservative movement of which the senator was a part
(D) A biography of a famous athlete which explained her high level of motivation in terms of the kind of family in which she grew up
(E) A history of the individuals who led the movement to end slavery in the United States which attributed the movement's success to the efforts of those exceptional individuals

3. The author cites which of the following as evidence against the public view of Eleanor Roosevelt held in the 1970’s?

(A) She had been born into a wealthy family.
(B) Her political career predated the adoption of women’s suffrage.
(C) She continued her career in politics even after her husband’s death.
(D) She was one of a few female historical figures who were well known to historians by the 1970’s.
(E) Her activism predated her husband’s presidency and her projects differed from his.

4. The author indicates that, according to Scharf’s biography, which of the following was NOT characteristic of feminists of Eleanor Roosevelt’s generation?

(A) Their lives were full of contradictions
(B) Their policies identified them as idiosyncratic.
(C) They were from privileged backgrounds.
(D) They held that women had unique responsibilities.
(E) They made a transition from old patterns of an association to new ones.

5. The author mentions which of the following as one of the “contradictions” (highlighted) evident in the lives of the women discussed in the third paragraph?

A) They pursued political aims for personal motives.
B) They were idiosyncratic individuals who can nevertheless be seen as social types.
C) They came from wealthy families but sought to remedy the problems of the poor.
D) They demanded equal treatment for women but justified the privileges of wealth.
E) They maintained female social networks but promoted women's participation in mainstream politics.

6. The author credits which of the following for making possible the current understanding of Eleanor Roosevelt's career?

A) The work of historians in the 1970s
B) Accounts written by feminists in the 1920s
C) Recent studies of feminists of her generation
D) Official records of her husband's presidency
E) The discovery of the writings of her associates

Show Spoiler

JOURNAL ARTICLE
Review: "Practical Idealists": Women's Politics and Culture in the New Deal Years
Reviewed Works: Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady of American Liberalism by Lois Scharf; Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and New Deal Politics by Susan Ware
Review by: Sharon Hartman Strom
Reviews in American History
Vol. 16, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 604-611
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.2307/2702361
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2702361
Page Count: 8

Attachment:

strom1988.pdf [1.01 MiB]
Downloaded 111 times

Show Answer Question #1

Official Answer

A

Show Answer Question #2

Official Answer

C

Show Answer Question #3

Official Answer

E

Show Answer Question #4

Official Answer

B

Show Answer Question #5

Official Answer

E

Show Answer Question #6

Official Answer

C

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GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

Question 2

In Lash's biography, Eleanor "appeared to be an  idiosyncratic  figure, somehow self-generated  not amenable to any generalized explanation . She emerged from the biography as a mother to the entire nation, or as a busybody, but  hardly as a social  type , a figure comprehensible in terms of broader social developments ."

The language here is pretty tough, but the point is that, according to Lash's biography, Eleanor's actions were NOT part of broader social developments/trends or of a general pattern. Instead, according to Lash, Eleanor's actions were relatively unique (idiosyncratic) at the time.

The author then CONTRASTS Lash's biography with more recent work, which "allows us to see Roosevelt in a different light". For example, Lois Scharf depicts "a  generation  of privileged women" whose views and lives were CONSISTENT with Eleanor's. Thanks to the recent work, "Roosevelt’s activities... have become intelligible in terms of this  social context  rather than as the  idiosyncratic  career of a famous man’s wife."

To summarize, Lash's biography depicts Eleanor as anomaly--someone's whose career was idiosyncratic (singular/unique). Scharf, on the other, depicts Eleanor's life in terms of  broader  social developments--in terms of more  general  social trends.

The senator's career is NOT depicted as singular or idiosyncratic. Instead, the senator's career is explained as part of a broader, more general movement. This is parallel to Scharf's depiction of Eleanor, so (C) is the correct answer.

x97agarwal · Answer

Q23. A
The passage begins by saying - despite the fact the ER was an active social reformer before her husband was elected President  she held a place in the public imagination largely because she was the wife of a particularly influential President.

The passage ends by saying - Beacuse of teh work of Scharf and teh others, ER's  activies have become intelligible in terms of this social context rather than as the idiosyncratic career of a famous man’s wife.

This clearly shows that teh passage is concerned with -Changes in the way in which Eleanor
Roosevelt’s life is understood

Q25. C (this one was a though one. POE leaves only C) "Scharf’s book depicts ER as someone privileged women, born in the late Nineteenth century and maturing in the twentieth, who made the transition from old patterns of female association to new ones. Basically these women were shaped by the events of their times and whilel they maintained female social networks they also began to integrate women into mainstream politics, demanded equal treatment but also argued that women’s maternal responsibilities made them both wards and representatives of the public interest.

Similarily - A conservative senator whose goals and ideals were shaped by by the movement he was a part of.

Q26. E

Public view: held in high regard beacuse she was the wife of a el presidente.

Author says ER had been important in socialreform circles before her husband was elected President.

anairamitch1804 · Answer

QUESTION 3:

Scharf’s book ‘Eleanor Roosevelt’ focuses on the lives and views of a generation of women – it brings Eleanor’s life into a richly detailed context; It also focuses of Eleanor’s life in this context, rather than treat her simply as a famous public figure.

The best way to approach this is PoE:

A: Ideals of Eleanor not mentioned in Scharf’s book.

B: Conflicting aims of leaders and the effect on their activities – no parallel to Scharf’s book on Eleanor

C: This is tempting because Scharf’s book talks about a generation of women – but there is no collective national movement in Eleanor’s time.

D: Probable. I see some parallels – the life of a famous figure (athlete, Eleanor) viewed not from the usual point of view (sports, First Lady) but from a different perspective (family upbringing, life & views).

E: Exceptional individuals and their successful reform against slavery – no parallel to Scharf’s book on Eleanor.

On the whole, I would go with D.

GMATNinja · Answer

3.The author cites which of the following as evidence against the public view of Eleanor Roosevelt held in the 1970’s?

The question itself has a couple twists and turns, so let's straighten it out fully:

The public held a certain view of ER in the 1970s. 
 The author makes a case against that view. 
 In doing so, the author cites a piece of evidence. What was that evidence?

To really stay on track, let's be clear about each part:

The public held a certain view of ER in the 1970s.  As  dave13  has pointed out, ER "held a place in the public imagination largely because she was the wife of a particularly influential President. Her own activities were seen as preparing the way for her husband’s election or as a complement to his programs." If we were only to read the texts of the 1970s, we would learn about "the idiosyncratic career of a famous man’s wife." 
  The author makes a case against that view.  Right up front, the author states that ER "had been important in social reform circles before her husband was elected President and that she continued to advocate different causes than he did." Then, in the second paragraph, the author cites the work of Scharf to continue presenting this alternative view: That ER represented a generation of privileged women "who made the transition from old patterns of female association to new ones." The author suggests that this context of generational change helps us understand ER more than the previous public view. 
  In doing so, the author cites a piece of evidence. What was that evidence?  There's plenty of evidence in the passage to support the author's case, and only 5 answer choices. So let's go ahead and work through the answer choices.

We're going to eliminate anything that was not used by the author to go against the 1970's public view of Eleanor Roosevelt. We'll probably have to eliminate choices that sound right, because we need to check many more boxes than "Is this true, according to the passage?"

This is true, but does the author cite this fact in order to make a case against the 1970's view?

Not really. ER's wealth, on its own, plays a minor part in both the 1970s view  and  the author's view. The fact that ER was wealthy doesn't explain the context of change, contradiction, and political awakening that ER's generation lived through. That's why we eliminate (A).

The author never brings this up to go against the 1970's public view of ER. In fact, the only time the author mentions suffrage is to tell us that Scharf studied ER in the years  after  (not before) women in the U.S. achieved suffrage. Eliminate (B).

As with (B), the author doesn't discuss ER's career in the time period  after  her husband's death. Eliminate (C) as well.

This is true, but what does it have to do with the author's case? As with (A), this is more of a basic fact that could be incorporated into any view of ER. It's not evidence that the author uses to make a case against the 1970's public view of ER. Eliminate (D).

Aha! This is the first choice that actually cites a fact about ER  in order to go against the 1970s view .

The 1970s view understood these activities as "preparing the way for her husband's election or as a complement to his programs." But choice (E) shows that ER was not simply the idiosyncratic wife of a famous man. She participated in the integration of women into mainstream politics, and had priorities that were separate from her husband's. This was part of the social change that she and her generation experienced.

(E) is the only choice that does what the question asked, so we'll stick with it.

I hope this helps!

NandishSS · Answer

HI  GMATNinja ,  mikemcgarry ,  DmitryFarber ,  MagooshExpert  (Carolyn),  ccooley ,  GMATGuruNY ,  AjiteshArun   EMPOWERgmatVerbal ,  EducationAisle

Can you help me with the below question. Eliminated Option A, & D

2)The author credits which of the following for making possible the current understanding of Eleanor Roosevelt's career?

A)The work of historians in the 1970s
B)Accounts written by feminists in the 1920s
C)Recent studies of feminists of her generation
D)Official records of her husband's presidency
E)The discovery of the writings of her associates

MagooshExpert · Answer

Hi NandishSS , Glad to help!

Here's the relevant part of the passage: This part of the passage tells us that feminist writers, like Scharf, helped develop the current understanding of Eleanor Roosevelt's career. This points us to B) and C). B is tempting, but note that Scharf's book, which was specifically used as an example of one of the accounts that helped further the understanding of Roosevelt's career, was written in 1987, not the 1920s. So C is a better choice, since Scharf's book would be considered a "recent study of feminism". Don't be thrown off by the fact that 1920 is mentioned in the text!

Choice E mentions "her associates", which implies "people who worked with her". However, we don't have any reason to believe that Scharf ever worked with Eleanor Roosevelt, and so she wouldn't be considered an "associate". Also, Sharf's book wasn't "discovered", it was published in 1987. So E doesn't quite fit -- we can eliminate E. I hope that helps!

-Carolyn

Anoushka1995 · Answer

Hi GMAT Ninja,

Can you please explain why in  Q2  option D is correct. I am still not able to understand the reasoning behind the same.

Thanks.

GMATNinja · Answer

Question #2  asks "Which of the following studies would proceed in a way most similar to the way in which, according to the passage, Scharf's book interprets Eleanor Roosevelt's career?"

Before Scharf came around, Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) was treated by historians as "an idiosyncratic figure" who was "hardly... a social type, a figure comprehensible in terms of broader social developments." Basically, Lash and other historians believed she was just an exceptional individual, rather than a part of a broader social movement.

Scharf's interpretation, on the other hand, made ER's career "intelligible in terms of... social context rather than as the idiosyncratic career of a famous man’s wife."

So, the major contribution of Scharf's book was to show that ER was part of a larger social movement.

With this in mind, take a look at (D):
 
This biography explains an athlete's motivation in the context of the  family  in which she grew up. This is different than showing that the athlete is part of a broader social movement of any kind. Because a family context is different than a broader social context, we cannot say that the biography in (D) proceeds in the most similar way to Scharf's book. (D) is out.

Compare that with (C):
 
Here, we can see that the senator's goals arose from a "national conservative movement." This clearly places the senator in the context of a larger social movement, mirroring the interpretation of ER's career in Scharf's book. (C) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!

Will2020 · Answer

GMATNinja Why A is wrong? The only thing that I could come up with is the fact the "ideals held by the reformer" is different from sth that she actually took part of (her support both for labor laws protecting women and for appointments of women to high public office) Does that makes sense? tks!

GMATNinja · Answer

The important thing about Scharf's book is that it examines ER's career  in a broader social context .

To answer the question we're looking for a study that  "proceeds in the same way"  -- in other words, a study that places someone's career in a broader context.

Take another look at (A):
 
This study doesn't place the reformer in a broader societal context. It just talks about the reformer in relation to his/her OWN ideals.

Maybe the reformer's ideals align perfectly with ER's ideals, or maybe they do not -- that is completely irrelevant. Scharf's point is that you have to examine ER in the context of a bigger movement, and (A) doesn't do that at all. That's why you can eliminate (A) for question 2.

I hope that helps!

TrungTiger · Answer

GMATNinja 
Dear sir,
Reagarding question 2, I am confused for option E: "A history of the individuals who led the movement to end slavery in the United States which attributed the movement's success to the efforts of those exceptional individuals"
Why is it wrong?

exceptional individuals = a generation of privileged women. Should it mean that ER involved in the movement at a broader social context?

GMATNinja · Answer

Question 2 
 
How does Scharf's book interpret Eleanor Roosevelt's career?

To shed some light this question, notice how the author presents Scharf's book in  contrast  to Lash's. So to understand Scharf, we should probably understand Lash as well.

More specifically, notice that Lash presents Roosevelt as an "idiosyncratic figure," but NOT as a "figure comprehensible in terms of broader social developments." Scharf, by contrast, depicts Roosevelt in a "more richly detailed context" which allows her to be "intelligible in terms of this  social context ."

Examining the description of Scharf's book more closely supports this idea. That is, Scharf's book presents Roosevelt as part of a "generation of privileged women." The passage goes on to describe the characteristics of this generation, and how they make Roosevelt's activities "intelligible."

So basically, where Lash presents Roosevelt WITHOUT reference to "broader social developments," Scharf presents Roosevelt in the "social context" of a "generation of privileged women."

Let's now consider (E):

Scharf describes Roosevelt (an individual) in relation to her social context. Does (E) do that?

Not really. In a way, it gets the relationship backwards. It attributes the success of a  movement  to the efforts of exceptional  individuals . But Scharf is describing an individual in relation to her social context.

From another angle: the author tells us that Lash presents Roosevelt as both "idiosyncratic" and "somehow self-generated." In other words, instead of explaining her in terms of her social surroundings, Lash explains Roosevelt as unique and self-made. Scharf does just the opposite, explaining Roosevelt through the social context of a "privileged generation."

Going back to the answer choice: notice the individuals presented in (E) are described as "exceptional," which sounds more like Lash (who thought Roosevelt was "idiosyncratic") than Scharf. In other words, if you describe someone as "exceptional," that implies they are really unique, or  different  from their social context, not a part of it. At the same time, although we're told the individuals in (E) belonged to a social movement, this social movement is NOT used to explain them.

For both those reasons, we can eliminate (E).

I hope that helps!

RonPurewal · Answer

The discussion in this thread goes off in various divergent directions, so I'll try to provide a summary answer for each question.

First—as usual in RC—let's go through the passage to create a short, high-level summary. One major use of the resulting outline of notes is to help predict the answers to big-picture (whole-passage) questions, so, we don't want to include anything that's too finely detailed to reasonably factor into one of the whole-passage questions.

¶1: 
Eleanor Roosevelt '70's:
—accomplished
—but famous as president's Wife (as in Lash's works)

¶2: 
Lash (70s): Didn't tie ER to the larger society
Scharf (1987): ER and other Women = life of contradictions (|| contradictions between changing female roles)

Now let's dig into the questions...

The summary outline above keeps the big ideas of this passage and filters out the details. Accordingly, we should be able to check the answer choices against it and take the one that's fully supported by it.

This choice is  FULLY SUPPORTED . ER's life was understood in one way by Lash and others in the 1970s (only in relation to her husband, and not as a mirror of anything in society more generally), but then in an altogether different way by Scharf and others in 1987 (without reference to her husband, and indeed in a way that reflected the changing roles of   Women more broadly).

This one's the winner .

"Social reform" is mentioned only as a single detail in ¶1. The passage does not explain anything that made that situation possible, so this choice is unsupported.

Furthermore, this choice doesn't even touch the content of ¶2.

Nope—it's limited to Eleanor Roosevelt. In fact, ¶1 explicitly points out that Lash & contemporaries formed their views of ER  specifically WITHOUT any reference to  the greater female experience of the time.

Completely unsupported. Not one word about anything that  resulted FROM  ER's doings.

Scharf & contemporaries note contradictions in the lives of ER's class of Women—implying a reflection of broader conflicts wrought by changing female roles—but there's no indication that they saw a cause/effect relationship in either direction.

Unsupported for essentially the same reasons as choice C.

RonPurewal · Answer

The main point of Scharf's work is to cast the life of Eleanor Roosevelt  in a greater social context, rather than in a strictly personal context . In other words, Scharf pointed out relations between ER's life and what was happening more broadly with her segment of society.

Accordingly, we have a CONCRETE GOAL here:
We need to find an answer choice that  relates someone's life to the situation of a larger group to which that person belongs .

Let's look at the choices to see which one satisfies this goal.

4

Nope. Nothing about a larger social group; these "ideals" are still strictly personal.

Still nothing about a broader group. This choice actually works just like option A, but for a handful of people rather than for just one person. Still stays within the context of those same people's personal values/goals.

Absolutely what we want. The senator's own goals reflected those of a much broader social group to which he is explicitly stated to have belonged

Winner!

Functionally identical to choice A. Stays within the context of one person and her immediate family, with no attempt to draw any parallels to a larger-scale social group.

This one is backwards. We want a choice that sheds light upon the accomplishments or values  of an individual  by finding  parallels in a broader context ; this choice, by contrast, sheds light upon a  broader  movement via parallels to the  NARROWER  context of certain key individuals within it.

RonPurewal · Answer

Some questions of this type require a connection that's located elsewhere in the passage. I.e., for "evidence against...", you might need to locate the '70's view of ER and then find something elsewhere that contrasts with it.

Others, however, contain the required relationship right there within a single area, using transition words to indicate it. Here, this would mean using contrast-related transition words to link the '70's view of ER directly to something that contrasts with it.

For efficiency's sake, we should look for the latter type of relationship first, and only go further afield if we don't find it.

The 1970s view of ER is at the very beginning of the passage. This turns out to be the latter, more compact type of relationship—with the contrasting evidence we need right there, linked by the word "despite":
 Despite the evidence that  she had been important in social reform circles before her husband was elected President and that she continued to advocate different causes than he did , ((back to stuff from the '70s view))

So there's our answer! 
 • Politically important before becoming First Lady
• Stood for causes other than her husband's

That's exactly what is written in the last choice:

None of the other choices are anywhere close.  E is the winner.

RonPurewal · Answer

An organized approach to this question has two main steps:
• Find where the passage talks about that generation of feminists;
• Locate a contrast.

The required contrasting idea could show up in either of two ways—which, again, we should try to find in order of efficiency:
—The passage may directly state it ("Unlike that generation of feminists..." "That generation of feminists did not..." etc.)
—Alternatively, we might need to find something that WAS true of those feminists, whose  opposite  appears as an answer choice.

For efficiency's sake we should look for the former of these first. Indeed, we find it—near the beginning of the second paragraph:
 However,   still appeared to be an  idiosyncratic figure, somehow self-generated not amenable to any generalized explanation . She emerged from the biography as  a mother to the entire nation, or as a busybody, but hardly as a social type, a figure comprehensible in terms of broader social developments .   But   more recent work on the feminism of the post-suffrage years (following 1920) allows us to see Roosevelt   in a different light  ...

Any of the stuff  in this color  could constitute a correct answer to this problem. Which choice has some of it?

Yup.

Nope to the others:

RonPurewal · Answer

"Mentions" unmistakably means we're looking for an answer choice that  repeats exactly what the passage says —maybe with different words, insofar as it's possible to change the wording without any real change to the meaning of the words.
So, let's just 'collect' the possible answers to this question from the explicit text of the passage, and then look for the same stuff in an answer choice.

There are exactly two specific pairs of contradictory observations given to illustrate this statement:
 • They maintained female social networks but began to integrate women into mainstream politics
• They demanded equal treatment but also argued that women’s maternal responsibilities made them both wards and representatives of the public interest

All we need to do at this point is go find an answer choice containing one of these two contradictory pairs.

That's the  last choice , which contains the first of the two pairs:

RonPurewal · Answer

"Crediting" something/someone is done  EXPLICITLY —much like "mentioning" in the question immediately preceding this one. So, again, this should be something we can look up in the passage, and then find duplicated in one of the answer choices.

We're looking for something that allowed historians to move from the previous understanding (that of the 1970s) to the current one, so, logically, we should find it at the transition point between those two sets of ideas. Indeed we do:
 But  more recent work on the feminism of the post-suffrage years (following 1920)    allows us to see Roosevelt in a different light

That's our  target answer: "more recent work on the feminism of the post-suffrage years (following 1920)"
 We just need to find this as an answer choice.

Take care to get the specs correct: we want MORE RECENT WORK (from closer to the present—i.e., NOT anything actually written back in the 1920s) on FEMINISM OF THE 1920s.

That's exactly what is in  our winning choice :

The only other choice that comes anywhere close to resembling the correct one is B:
 
This isn't what we want, however, because it's not MORE RECENT WORK. Instead, this is the original source material from that actual period, which we don't want in this instance.

Afn24 · Answer

10 mins. 5 correct except for Q2.
I am not sure if there was a clear feminist movement but when I read it again, it kind of made sense

When the history of women began to receive focused attention in the

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