U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1880-1965) as President of the International Business Women’s Congress held in Paris in 1936.
President Joe Biden has established a national monument in Newcastle, Maine, to Frances Perkins, the first woman member of a presidential Cabinet who may also have been part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Perkins served as Labor Secretary under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Perkins is remembered for her fierce advocacy for working people and worked to establish huge public works programs to decrease unemployment.
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Perkins is considered “the woman behind the New Deal,” as the Frances Perkins Center explained, and her policy ideas helped establish the modern middle class.
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Among many other accomplishments, she convinced the president to invest $3.3 billion in public works as part of his One Hundred Days legislation. The investment led to the employment of between 1.5 and 2 million public works employees, who helped create better schools, post offices, roads, and housing projects.
Perkins is also known for creating the blueprint for Social Security as head of a Committee on Economic Security. She also helped create the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established maximum work hours, banned child labor, and created a minimum wage.
“The story goes, after Franklin Roosevelt asked her to become his Labor secretary, Frances Perkins immediately responded by outlining her goals, what she wanted done,” Biden said during his remarks on the establishment of the monument. “She said, ‘I want unemployment relief, overtime pay, child labor laws, minimum wage, worker’s compensation, national health insurance, and Social Security’… many of the benefits we take for granted as a consequence of Frances’ dedication to inciting courage.”
He added, “It’s clear that Frances Perkins and a generation of activists and labor leaders laid the groundwork for much of what we’ve accomplished in the last four years.”
He also quoted Perkins saying, “’The people are what matter to government, and the government should aim to give people — all people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.’”
Perkins married Paul Wilson in 1913, though she kept her last name. Wilson regularly received inpatient treatment for mental health issues, during which times Perkins would room with other women.
While there is no confirmation about her sexuality, the National Park Service wrote that her “relationship with one roommate, Mary Harriman Rumsey, was very intimate.”
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