Background
Frances Perkins was born on April 10, 1880, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Susan Bean Perkins and Frederick W. Perkins, the owner of a stationer's business (both of her parents originally were from Maine).
United States Department of Labor, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
United States Civil Service Commission, United States
National Women's Hall of Fame
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States
Columbia University, New York, United States
The Frances Perkins Building is the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the United States Department of Labor and is located at 200 Constitution Avenue NW and runs alongside Interstate 395
The Frances Perkins House, a U.S. National Historic Landmark since 1991, located at 2326 California Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
The grave of Frances Perkins, Glidden Cemetery, Newcastle, Maine, United States
Frances Perkins was born on April 10, 1880, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Susan Bean Perkins and Frederick W. Perkins, the owner of a stationer's business (both of her parents originally were from Maine).
Perkins attended the Classical High School in Worcester. In 1898 she enrolled at Mount Holyoke College. Frances Perkins graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and physics in 1902. She obtained a master's degree in political science from Columbia University in 1910.
Perkins next became executive secretary of the Consumers' League of New York in 1910, which investigated industrial conditions and lobbied for ameliorative legislation.
Between 1919 and 1929 Miss Perkins was industrial commissioner for the state of New York. She helped get further reductions of the work week for women, the publication of monthly figures on unemployment within the state, and other reforms. She was also active in immigrant education programs and won the confidence of both trade unionists and middle-class reformers. In 1929 newly elected governor Franklin D. Roosevelt made her labor commissioner of New York. Four years later she followed Roosevelt (now president) to Washington as secretary of labor, the first woman to hold a Cabinet appointment.
Although opposed by both business groups and the leadership of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) because of her sex and her liberal social and economic views, Perkins did a reasonably good job. Her department improved the operation of the Children's Bureau, began issuing regular unemployment figures, and contributed significantly to the standardization of state labor laws and the formulation of the Social Security Act. The Labor Department proved ineffectual in dealing with the industrial disturbances of the 1930s and with the strife between the AFL and the emergent Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
Despite persistent, often harsh, criticism, Perkins stayed in office, resigning only after Roosevelt's death in 1945. Soon after, however, President Harry Truman appointed her to the U. S. Civil Service Commission. She served quietly and rather obscurely until she resigned in 1953. For the next 12 years Perkins lectured at Cornell University and other institutions.
Frances Perkins died on May 14, 1965, in New York City, and was buried in Newcastle, Maine.
Quotations:
"Being a woman has only bothered me in climbing trees."
"Most of man's problems upon this planet, in the long history of the race, have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage."
"In America, public opinion is the leader."
"To one who believes that really good industrial conditions are the hope for a machine civilization, nothing is more heartening than to watch conference methods and education replacing police methods."
In June 1934, Frances Perkins became a member of the President's Committee on Economic Security (CES). In 1945, Perkins was a member of the United States Delegation to International Labor Organization Conference. From 1946 to 1952, she served as a member of the United States Civil Service Commission.
Frances Perkins also was very active as a member of the War Manpower Commission, Federal Advisory Board for Vocational Education and National Archives Commission.
Frances Perkins was rather plain and deliberately dressed in a sedate fashion: she never wore makeup and favored tricornered hats and no-nonsense black and navy suits.
In 1913, Frances Perkins married Paul Caldwell Wilson, a financial statistician. The couple had one daughter.