President Biden Designates Francis Perkins National Monument
Have you ever heard of Frances Perkins? She was the first woman in a presidential Cabinet, and a key part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration during the Great Depression. She was also the longest-serving Labor Secretary in U.S. history. Last month, President Biden honored Perkins’ service and legacy by designating the Frances Perkins National Monument as an official national parks site.
Who Was Frances Perkins?
Born in Boston in 1880, Frances Perkins was raised in Maine. During college, she joined Progressive groups and began to pay more attention to causes such as workers’ rights. She began her career as a social worker in the early 1900s. Perkins helped people who were poor or unemployed. She was also concerned about how women and children were mistreated in factories at the time. Perkins was a worker herself; she married and had a daughter, but both her husband and her daughter suffered from bipolar disorder. It fell to Perkins to economically support her family.
In 1911, while living in New York City, she witnessed the historic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where 150 workers—mostly women and immigrants–died. So many died because the factory doors were locked, and the employees couldn’t escape the blaze. The incident caused Perkins to dedicate her life to fighting for workers. Even more remarkable is the fact that Perkins did much of her work at a time when women didn’t even have the right to vote. (White women didn’t obtain the right to vote until 1920).
Perkins served as Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945: the first female Cabinet member, and one of only two Cabinet secretaries to serve the entire length of FDR’s twelve-year presidency. As Labor Secretary, she supported many policies and protections that remain in operation today, such as Social Security benefits, a minimum wage, child labor laws, paid overtime, and a forty-hour work week. It was Perkins’ belief that if someone was working a full-time job, they should not have to live in poverty. Because she served during the Great Depression, she also fought for unemployment relief. Many American families survived the Great Depression because of these policies.
Blazing a Trail
As the first female Cabinet member, Perkins faced many challenges. Many labor union organizers were angry at Roosevelt for appointing a female Labor Secretary. As the only woman in a traditionally male field, Perkins kept notes on her male colleagues and stored them in a large envelope labeled “Notes on the Male Mind.” She dressed in very drab clothing and never wore makeup, because she believed that women would only be accepted in politics if they reminded men of their mothers. She also was quiet in meetings, because she felt men would not listen to her if she interrupted them or was too bold with her ideas.
Despite these strategies, Perkins achieved other nortariety. She was also the first female Cabinet member that Congress tried to impeach. This happened after she refused to deport a suspected Communist who led a worker strike in San Francisco. Though she was not impeached, her reputation suffered as a result of this incident. Nevertheless, historians remember her today as a critical part of Roosevelt’s administration and one of the greatest advocates for workers’ rights in U.S. history.
Remembering Perkins’ Legacy
In 2014, Frances Perkins’ 1837 home in Newcastle, Maine, was designated a National Historic Landmark. The home is also surrounded by 57 acres of land, including many walking trails with views of the Damariscotta River. In 2020, Perkins’ descendants sold the property to the Frances Perkins Center, which donated it to the National Park Service.
This past December, President Joe Biden officially designated Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine, as the 433rd addition to the National Park System. The designation was a part of Biden’s executive order to do more to recognize and honor the historic contributions of women and girls in the national parks system.