Esther Peterson
{{Short description|American consumer rights activist (1906–1997)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Esther Peterson
| image = Esther Peterson (1962).jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Peterson in 1962
| office = 2nd Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs
| term_start = January 20, 1977
| term_end = January 20, 1981
| president = Jimmy Carter
| predecessor = Virginia Knauer
| successor = Virginia Knauer
| office2 = 1st Special Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs
| term_start2 = January 3, 1964
| term_end2 = May 1, 1967
| president2 = Lyndon Johnson
| predecessor2 = Office established
| office3 = Executive Vice Chairperson of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
| term_start3 = January 20, 1961
| term_end3 = November 22, 1963
| president3 = John F. Kennedy
| predecessor3 = Office established
| office4 = 4th Director of the United States Women's Bureau
| term_start4 = January 20, 1961
| term_end4 = January 3, 1964
| president4 = John F. Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
| predecessor4 = Alice K. Leopold
| successor4 = Mary Dublin Keyserling
| birth_name = Esther Eggertsen
| birth_date = {{birth date|1906|12|9}}
| birth_place = Provo, Utah, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1997|12|20|1906|12|9}}
| death_place = Washington
| spouse = {{marriage|Oliver Peterson|1932}}
| children = 4
| alma_mater = Brigham Young University (1927)
Teachers College, Columbia University (1930)
| footnotes =
}}
Esther Eggertsen Peterson (December 9, 1906 – December 20, 1997) was an American consumer and women's advocate.
Background
The daughter of Danish immigrants, Esther Eggertsen grew up in a family who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Provo, Utah.{{Cite web|url=https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/esther-peterson|title=Esther Eggertsen Peterson {{!}} AFL-CIO|website=aflcio.org|access-date=2019-07-12}} She graduated from Brigham Young University in 1927 with a degree in physical education, and a master's from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1930.{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/453935/Esther-Peterson|title=Esther Peterson - American consumer advocate}}{{Cite web |title=Esther Peterson Personal Papers {{!}} JFK Library |url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/EEPPP |access-date=2022-11-29 |website=www.jfklibrary.org}} She held several teaching positions in the 1930s, including one at the innovative Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, which brought milliners, telephone operators and garment workers onto the campus.
She moved to New York City where she married Oliver Peterson. In 1932, the two moved to Boston, where she taught at The Winsor School and volunteered at the YWCA.{{Cite web|url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1501361|title=Peterson, Esther (09 December 1906–20 December 1997), government official, consumer and labor activist, and women's rights advocate |work= American National Biography |year=2014 |language=en|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1501361|access-date=2019-07-12|last1=Cobble |first1=Dorothy Sue |last2=Bowes |first2=Julia |isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 }}
Career
In 1938, Peterson became a paid organizer for the American Federation of Teachers and traveled around New England. In 1944, Peterson became the first lobbyist for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. In 1948, the State Department offered Peterson's husband a position as a diplomat in Sweden. The family returned to Washington, D.C., in 1957 and Peterson joined the Industrial Union Department of the AFL–CIO, becoming its first woman lobbyist.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEWsZ81Bd3YC&q=esther+peterson&pg=PA1079|title=Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-class History|last=Arnesen|first=Eric|date=2007|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780415968263|language=en}}
She was Assistant Secretary of Labor and Director of the United States Women's Bureau under fellow Bostonian President John F. Kennedy.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JpsWXjesELUC&q=esther+peterson|title=The Presidency and Women: Promise, Performance, and Illusion|last=Martin|first=Janet M.|date=2009-09-13|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|isbn=9781603441544|language=en}}{{Cite news |last1=Molotsky |first1=Irvin |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=1986-12-08 |title=WASHINGTON TALK: WORKING PROFILE; EVERYMAN'S ADVOCATE: ESTHER PETERSON |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/08/us/washington-talk-working-profile-everyman-s-advocate-esther-peterson.html |access-date=2022-11-29 |issn=0362-4331}} In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson named Peterson to the newly created post of Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs.{{cite news|title=Esther Peterson To Be Elevated|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YJkuAAAAIBAJ&pg=2774,224928&dq=esther+peterson&hl=en|access-date=February 17, 2012|newspaper=The Sumpter Daily Item|date=January 3, 1964}} She would later serve as President Jimmy Carter's Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs.
Peterson was also Vice President for Consumer Affairs at Giant Food Corporation, where she led an initiative to introduce the first nutrition labels in 1971, and was president of the National Consumers League.{{Citation |title=The First Food Nutrition Labels (1971) w/ Xaq Frohlich |date=2023-09-10 |url=https://open.spotify.com/episode/2FexYzj9CpnLTfeJqn9iPW |access-date=2024-05-09 |language=en}}
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.{{cite web|url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/849025|title=Jimmy Carter - Presenting the Medal of Freedom to Roger Baldwin (not in attendance), Harold Brown, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Warren Christopher, Walter Cronkite, Kirk Douglas, Dr. Karl Menninger (not in attendance), Edmund S. Muskie, Margaret McNamara, Esther Peterson, Ambassador Gerard C. Smith, Robert S. Strauss, Judge Elbert Tuttle, Chief Justice Earl Warren (posthumously), Ambassador Andrew Young|last=President (1977-1981 : Carter). White House Staff Photographers|date=20 January 1977|via=US National Archives Research Catalog|access-date=7 December 2017|archive-date=4 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220804221749/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/849025|url-status=dead}} Peterson was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board in 1982. In 1990, the American Council on Consumer Interests created the Esther Peterson Consumer Policy Forum lectureship, which is presented annually at the council's conference.{{Cite web|url=https://www.consumerinterests.org/esther-peterson-award|title=Esther Peterson Award|website=www.consumerinterests.org|access-date=2019-07-12}} She was named a delegate of the United Nations as a UNESCO representative in 1993. In that same year, Peterson was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/esther-peterson/ National Women's Hall of Fame, Esther Peterson]
Death
Peterson died on December 20, 1997.{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/22/us/esther-peterson-dies-at-91-worked-to-help-consumers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=Esther Peterson Dies at 91; Worked to Help Consumers |first=Irvin |last=Molotsky |work=The New York Times |date=22 December 1997 |location=New York |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=7 October 2012}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- Restless: The Memoirs of Labor and Consumer Activist Esther Peterson (Caring Publishing, 1997) {{ISBN|9781886450028}}
External links
- [https://research.archives.gov/person/2688807 Archives.gov] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310215140/https://research.archives.gov/person/2688807 |date=2016-03-10 }}
- [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00029 Papers, 1884-1998 (inclusive), 1929-1998 (bulk).] [https://web.archive.org/web/20041016004838/http://www.sfbg.com/lit/march00/smile.html Schlesinger Library], Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110927032402/http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/history/history/peterson.cfm AFL-CIO Profile]
- [https://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKOH-EEP-02.aspx Transcribed oral history interview with Esther Peterson at the JFK Library]
{{Consumerism}}
{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Esther}}
Category:American Latter Day Saints
Category:American people of Danish descent
Category:Brigham Young University alumni