PUBLIC POLICY
Women's History Month: Frances Perkins and the Department of Labor
Frances Perkins has been called one of the most influential
women of the 20th Century, and yet few of us today recognize her name. She was, however, a nationally recognized expert on employment
regulations and working conditions when President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) asked her to be his Secretary of Labor. As FDR’s first term began in 1933, thousands of banks had closed in the aftermath of the stock market crash, unemployment stood at
25%; hungry people stood in bread lines or picked over garbage dumps. He knew no appointment would be more important than Labor
Secretary. As the Governor of New York he had appointed Perkins to the post of Industrial Commissioner where she was in charge
of the nation’s largest state labor department. He appreciated her competence and integrity and knew no one was better qualified. Still, appointing a woman to his cabinet would be an unprecedented act and politically risky.
Frances Perkins did not make it
easy for him. For her interview with FDR, she arrived clutching a list of the policies she would work to put in place: aid to
state and local governments for unemployment relief, a public works program, a federal minimum wage coupled with maximum hour laws,
a ban on child labor, and unemployment and old age insurance. She wanted FDR’s assurance that he would support her agenda. He was firmly against what he called “the dole,” but Perkins argued that the programs should be viewed as insurance to which citizens
contribute, as well as benefit from. He gave her the assurance she sought.
Perkins was sworn in as the Secretary of Labor
on
Her biographer, Kirsten Downey wrote, “It is a great historic irony that
Frances Perkins faced the argument that the Depression was no time to push for
worker benefits and protections, but she answered that it was an economic necessity. Today we hear the same argument raised against
the Paycheck Fairness Act pending in the Senate. The current Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, also champions workers’ rights,
and as the first Hispanic woman in this office, she knows well the importance to families of fair pay practices.
Beverly Weiss, Public Policy Chair
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