Ellen Sullivan Woodward

Ellen Sullivan Woodward (July 11, 1887 – September 23, 1971) was a United States federal civil servant and a Mississippi state legislator. She served as director of work relief programs for women organized as part of the Roosevelt administration's New Deal in the 1930s and continued to work in the federal government until her retirement in the 1950s.

Personal life Ellen Sullivan was born in Oxford, Mississippi, on July 11, 1887, to William Van Amberg Sullivan, an attorney who later served as a congressman from Mississippi and United States senator, and Belle Murray Sullivan. She was one of five children. Through her mother's side she was a Daughter of the American Revolution, and through her father's side she was a United Daughter of the Confederacy.

Her mother died when she was seven. She was educated in Oxford, Washington, D.C., and Greenville, South Carolina, and received no formal education after the age of 15. Her father did not want her to attend college. Woodward also was the executive secretary of the State Research Commission and was on the State Board of Public Welfare. Part of her work included creating jobs for women through the Civil Works Administration (created in 1933). Starting these job programs was hampered both because public opinion didn't often see women as the head of the household and had beliefs about which job types would be appropriate for women to hold.

She was a member of the three-member Social Security Board from 1938 to 1946. Woodward believed that standardizing payments between states would assist in postwar reconstruction.

In 1946, Woodward was named director of the Office of Internal Relations of the newly created Federal Security Agency; she retired in December 1953.

Woodward's portrait is part of the Mississippi Hall of Fame located in the Old Capitol Museum to honor her significant contributions to the state of Mississippi.

Retirement After retiring, Woodward was involved with women's clubs, the Democratic Party, and charitable organizations. She died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 84. Her son Albert Woodward, Jr. died in 1990. Woodward did not leave much personal paperwork behind. Her papers are now held at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.