Frances Perkins (1880–1965)

Who They Were

Frances Perkins (1880-1965) was an American reformer and public official who served as U.S. Secretary of Labor throughout Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. She was the first woman to hold a position in a U.S. presidential cabinet, appointed when Roosevelt took office in 1933 and remaining in the post for his entire tenure until 1945. Perkins came to national government from a career in social reform and labor advocacy in New York, where she had worked on factory safety and working conditions in the wake of the era's industrial disasters. As Labor Secretary during the Great Depression she was one of the principal architects of the New Deal's social and labor legislation. She spent her later years teaching and writing, and is remembered as a pioneering figure both for her policy legacy and for breaking the gender barrier at the highest level of the executive branch.

Key Contributions

Perkins was a central figure in designing the Social Security Act, the landmark 1935 law that created old-age insurance and unemployment benefits and became one of the most enduring legacies of the New Deal. As Secretary of Labor she also helped shape federal standards on wages, hours, and workplace conditions, and she supported legislation establishing a national minimum wage and limits on child labor. She chaired the committee that developed the Social Security proposal, translating decades of reform ideas into national policy during the Depression. Her work helped build the framework of the American social-insurance state and expanded the federal government's role in protecting workers - a shift that, alongside the broader New Deal, permanently changed expectations about public responsibility for economic security.

On EconRecall

FDR's Secretary of Labor and the first woman in a U. Play the games that feature Frances Perkins:

• The Great Depression 1929