Frances Perkins (1880– 1965)

Speaker:  Janet Worthington

In support of the suffrage movement, Frances Perkins attended protests, meetings, advocated for the cause on street corners. Under Franklin D. Roosevelt, she served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 and was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet.  An FDR supporter, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition.  She was a central figure in setting up social security, unemployment insurance, child labor laws, and the minimum wage.