Frances Perkins, born on this day in history in Boston, Massachusetts, served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945. She was not only first woman appointed to a U.S. Cabinet position, but had the longest tenure of anyone serving in that job. Moreover, as the “Washington Post” notes, “During FDR’s first 100 days in the White House in 1933, Perkins was the force behind so many pillars of his program to combat the Great Depression that some called it ‘the Perkins New Deal.’”
Roosevelt meets with his his Cabinet in 1938. (George R. Skadding/AP)
Perkins graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and physics in 1902. While attending Mount Holyoke, Perkins discovered progressive politics.
In 1907, she moved to Philadelphia and enrolled at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School to learn economics. After two years in Philadelphia, Perkins moved to Greenwich Village, where she attended Columbia University and became active in the suffrage movement. She obtained a master’s degree in economics and sociology from Columbia in 1910.
She achieved statewide prominence as head of the New York office of the National Consumers League in 1910, lobbying for better working hours and conditions. The next year, she witnessed the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a pivotal event in her life. The factory employed hundreds of workers, mostly young women, but lacked fire escapes; one hundred and forty-six workers died.
Because of this fire, Perkins left her position at the New York office of the National Consumers League, and on the recommendation of Theodore Roosevelt, become the executive secretary for the Committee on Safety of the City of New York. In 1919, she was added to the Industrial Commission of the State of New York by Governor Al Smith. Perkins was confirmed on February 18, 1919, becoming one of the first female commissioners in New York, and began working out of New York City. Six months into her job, her fellow Commissioner James M. Lynch called Perkin’s contributions “invaluable,” and added “[f]rom the work which Miss Perkins has accomplished I am convinced that more women ought to be placed in high positions throughout the state departments.” In 1929, the newly elected New York governor, Franklin Roosevelt, appointed Perkins as the inaugural New York state industrial commissioner.
Perkins helped put New York in the forefront of progressive reform. She expanded factory investigations, reduced the workweek for women to 48 hours, and championed minimum wage and unemployment insurance laws. She worked to put an end to child labor and to provide safety for women workers.
Frances kept a red envelope entitled “Notes on the Male Mind” which she would fill with notes about how men thought and how she could best make them listen. One way she endeavored to overcome the prejudice of the men she worked with by trying to remind them of their mothers in her appearance and demeanor. She later said, according to biographer Kirsten Downey, “They know and respect their mothers – ninety-nine percent of them do.” If that’s what it took, that’s the persona she would adopt. In this way, she went on to push successfully for workplace safety reforms and measures to reduce unemployment.
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Perkins to join his cabinet. Perkins presented Roosevelt with a long list of labor programs for which she would fight, from Social Security to minimum wage. As secretary, Perkins oversaw the Department of Labor. Perkins went on to hold the position for 12 years, longer than any other Secretary of Labor. She also was the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States, and thus became the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession.
As Secretary of Labor, Perkins played a key role in the cabinet by writing New Deal legislation, including minimum-wage laws. Her most important contribution, however, came in 1934 as chairwoman of the President’s Committee on Economic Security. In this post, she was involved in all aspects of its reports, including helping to create the Civilian Conservation Corps. Perkins also drafted the Social Security Act of 1935.
The “Washington Post” recounts:
“Perkins faced a Christmas deadline to finish the plan for what would become Social Security. Alone in her big house, she called in members of her team, all men, ‘placed a large bottle of Scotch on the table and told them no one would leave until the work was done,’ wrote Kirstin Downey in her book The Woman Behind the New Deal.”
FDR signs Social Security Act with Frances Perkins over his left shoulder
With the death of President Roosevelt, Harry Truman ascended to the office on April 12, 1945, appointing his own cabinet but asking Perkins to serve on the United States Civil Service Commission. In her post as commissioner, Perkins spoke out against government officials requiring secretaries and stenographers to be physically attractive, blaming the practice for the shortage of secretaries and stenographers in the government.
Following her government service career, Perkins remained active as a teacher and lecturer at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University until her death in 1965 at age 85. She also gave guest lectures at other universities, including two 15-lecture series at the University of Illinois Institute of Labor and Industrial relations in 1955 and 1958.
President Jimmy Carter renamed the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., the Frances Perkins Building in 1980. Perkins’ was honored with a postage stamp that same year.
The Frances Perkins Center is a nonprofit organization located in Damariscotta, Maine. Its mission is to fulfill the legacy of Frances Perkins through educating visitors on her work and programs and preserving the Perkins family homestead for future generations. On the website, there are two documentaries you can watch on the life and work of Perkins.
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