Frances Perkins was the Secretary of Labor for the United States from 1933 to 1945, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making history as the first woman to serve in a Presidential Cabinet. She advocated for industrial safety and workers’ rights in the emerging New Deal coalition.
Born Fannie Coralie Perkins in Boston, Massachusetts, she attended the Classical High School in Worcester and earned her Bachelor of Science in both Chemistry and Physics from Mount Holyoke College in 1902. In college, she discovered progressive politics and the suffrage movement. She was also named class president.
Perkins became the General Secretary of the Philadelphia Research and Protective Association in 1907. She enrolled at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania to expand her knowledge of economics before moving in 1910 to New York City to become the Executive Secretary of the Consumers’ League until 1912. She campaigned successfully for improved wages and working conditions, especially for women and children.
A pivotal event in Perkins’ life was the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. After this tragedy, Perkins, upon recommendation from Theodore Roosevelt, became the Executive Secretary for the Committee on Safety of the City of New York, which was formed to improve fire safety.
After FDR’s 1932 election, he appointed Perkins as Secretary of Labor. She settled into a 12-year term in her department, the longest anyone had served in that position, becoming instrumental in writing legislation for the New Deal, working to actively battle unemployment, creating the Civilian Conservation Corps, and fighting to establish a minimum wage.
Perkins made significant contributions to the New Deal’s Social Security program. “Its importance cannot be exaggerated …because this legislation eventually will affect the lives of every man, woman, and child in the country,” The Washington Post said when the Social Security Act was signed into action on August 14, 1935.
In 2020, Perkins was the focus of the documentary “Summoned.”