Frances Perkins
Politician
1880 – 1965
Who was Frances Perkins?
Frances Perkins was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet to remain in office for his entire presidency.
During her term as Secretary of Labor, Perkins championed many aspects of the New Deal, including the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration and its successor the Federal Works Agency, and the labor portion of the National Industrial Recovery Act. With the Social Security Act she established unemployment benefits, pensions for the many uncovered elderly Americans, and welfare for the poorest Americans. She pushed to reduce workplace accidents and helped craft laws against child labor. Through the Fair Labor Standards Act, she established the first minimum wage and overtime laws for American workers, and defined the standard forty-hour work week. She formed governmental policy for working with labor unions and helped to alleviate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service, Perkins resisted having American women be drafted to serve the military in World War II so that they could enter the civilian workforce in greatly expanded numbers.
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
- Born
- Apr 10, 1880
Boston - Also known as
- Fannie Coralie Perkins
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Education
- Mount Holyoke College
- Columbia University
- Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
- University of Pennsylvania
- Employment
- Cornell University
- Lived in
- Boston
- Maine
- Worcester
- Died
- May 14, 1965
New York
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Frances Perkins." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/frances_perkins>.
Discuss this Frances Perkins biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In