Volume 14 , Issue 27

Frances Perkins (1880-1965)

We found the following video on YouTube concerning the biography of Frances Perkins, and read by what seem to be school girls.

Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Davies, (April 10, 1880[1] May 14, 1965) was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet who remained in offices for his entire presidency.



During Perkins term as Secretary of Labor, she championed many aspects of the New Deal, including the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Public Works Administration and its successor the Federal Works Agency, and the labor portion of the National Industrial Recovery Act.

With The Social Security Act Perkins established unemployment benefits, pensions for the many uncovered elderly Americans, and welfare for the poorest Americans. She pushed to reduce workplace accidents and helped craft laws against child labor. Through the Fair Labor Standards Act, she established the first minimum wage and overtime laws for American workers, and defined the standard 40-hour work week.

Frances Perkins formed governmental policy for working with labor unions and helped to alleviate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service, Perkins resisted having American women be drafted to serve the military in World War II so that they could enter the civilian workforce in greatly expanded numbers.

Read more about this great woman in the hardback or on your Kindle: The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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