“There is always a large horizon. There is much to be done. It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of human betterment for all time.” Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins was the first female cabinet member in the United States, serving as the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945.
Fannie Coralie Perkins (she later changed her first name to Frances) was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1880. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from Mount Holyoke College and then moved to Chicago, where she taught high school chemistry at Lake Forest Academy and volunteered at the famous Hull House with social worker Jane Addams, providing social services to immigrants and other people from underserved communities.
Frances then moved to New York where she earned her master’s degree in economics and sociology from Columbia University and she joined the suffragist movement, advocating for women’s rights, including the right to vote.
In 1911, while living in New York and serving as the head of the New York office of the National Consumers League, she was visiting a friend near Washington Square Park. All of a sudden, they heard fire engines and commotion. They rushed over to see what was happening and they found a horrific scene. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was on fire. Workers were trapped inside and they were throwing themselves from the higher floors to escape. The fire department was there, ready on the ground with nets, but the sheer number of people jumping overwhelmed the nets and they ripped.
“The people had just begun to jump when we got there,” Frances explained. “They had been holding until that time, standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. Finally, people were trying to get out this thing that the firemen carry with them, a net to catch people if they do jump… and they couldn’t wait any longer. They began to jump. The weight of the bodies was so great, at the speed at which they were traveling, that they broke through the net. Every one of them was killed, everybody who jumped was killed. It was a horrifying spectacle.”
By the time the fire was put out, 147 people were dead. Frances, like everyone who witnessed the fire, was outraged. She pledged to not only bring the owners of the factory to justice and compensate the victims’ families but improve factory conditions across New York. She was named Chief Investigator in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and over the next four years, she led a rigorous investigation that led to legislation improving factory conditions, including safety protocols, and limiting working hours.
When her husband, Paul Wilson, developed a mental illness, Frances became the breadwinner of their family and she knew she had to secure a well-paying job while not compromising her ideals. In 1919, she was hired by the New York State government as one of its first female commissioners, earning a salary equal to more than $140,000 today, an enormous amount for a woman in her time period.
“The door might not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time,” Frances explained. “And I had a duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats.”
A few years later, New York State Governor and future United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, appointed her as the first New York State Industrial Commissioner, where she oversaw a department of more than 1,800 employees and passed groundbreaking reforms, including expanding investigations into factories with abusive and dangerous practices.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected U.S. President in 1932, he appointed France Perkins as the Secretary of Labor, making her the first female cabinet member in the United States. Though it was difficult to maintain a demanding job while taking care of her daughter and husband, Frances had an undeniably strong work ethic and a healthy attitude toward challenging situations.
“It is not the nature of man, as I see it, to ever be quite satisfied with what he has in life,” she said. “Contentment tends to breed laxity, but a healthy discontent keeps us alert to the changing needs of our time.”
After taking on her new role as the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Frances got to work immediately. She developed programs to help Americans recover from the Great Depression, including creating social security, and she co-wrote the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established the federal minimum wage, restricted child labor, and limited the workweek to 40 hours.
“The people are what matter to the government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life,” said Frances.
After President Roosevelt passed away in 1945, Frances left the White House and accepted a position on the United States Civil Service Commission, where she served until 1952, when her husband passed away. Frances Perkins was also a member of the LGBT community, having long-term relationships with women while living in Washington, D.C., and New York.
After decades of government service, Frances taught at Cornell University from 1952 until her death at the age of 85 in 1965. And in 1980, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Frances Perkins Building.
Frances Perkins is a feminist icon who fought long and hard to improve labor practices in America, creating standards and social safety nets that are still protecting Americans today.