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“A woman’s place is in the kitchen” is a antiquated quote often used in arguing that some jobs, careers, or leadership positions are not appropriate for women. Frances Perkins, though, knew her place was wherever her nation needed her.
In 1933, this trailblazer broke through the glass ceiling when she became the first woman to serve in a president’s cabinet.
It was 20 years earlier, when Frances Perkins met Franklin D. Roosevelt during his time serving in the New York State Senate.
Roosevelt was impressed with the lobbyist for the New York Consumers League. When he became the governor of New York, he made Perkins New York’s Industrial Commissioner.
Perkins was quoted about her time in D.C., saying, “I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain, common working men.”
Perkins, who has been called the architect of the New Deal, was not just a figurehead during her time as the Secretary of Labor.
Her work is still felt today by every person who works professionally in the United States.
Social Security insurance, unemployment insurance, the forty-hour work week, creating aid for the needy, disabled and elderly, along with ending child labor were all ideas that Perkins spearheaded.
When Perkins made changes to labor laws, she just didn’t talk to the captains of industries, she went to see the workers in person.
Perkins visited factories and took notes as workers explained the working conditions, how many hours they worked and how much they were paid.
Meeting people of different backgrounds was nothing new to Perkins.
In 1907 during her time working for the Philadelphia Research and Protective Association, Perkins spoke to drug dealers and pimps while she investigated bogus employment agencies that took advantage of immigrant women.
Perkins was one of two cabinet secretaries to serve during FDR’s total time in office, and to this day she is the longest serving Labor Secretary.
Perkins left the Department of Labor in 1945, shortly after Roosevelt died, but not before she said a final goodbye to each of the 1,800 employees of the agency, shaking each of their hands.
Not one for resting on her laurels, Perkins got back to work, first by writing a best-selling biography of FDR entitled, The Roosevelt I Knew.
Not long after, President Harry Truman asked her to serve on the United States Civil Service Commission, which she would do until 1952.
Instead of going home and putting her feet up, Perkins instead went to the classroom and taught at Cornell University.
That was Perkins’ last job. She worked at the school in Ithaca, New York until she died at the age of 85 in 1965.
On the 100th anniversary of Perkins’ birth on April 10, 1980, President Jimmy Carter hosted a ceremony renaming the headquarters of the United States Department of Labor as the Frances Perkins Building.
On that day, along with naming the building after Perkins, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor.
There is a plaque on the Perkins Building that reads, “legacy of social action enhances the lives of all of us.”
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