![]() ![]() She served on the state industrial board under Governor Al Smith and eventually became chairwoman. She worked zealously to improve living and working conditions there, coming to state senator Franklin Roosevelt's attention as a representative of the Consumers League lobbying for factory legislation. Born in 1880 in Boston and raised in New England, Perkins entered social work in New York State after graduating from college. She served as Secretary of Labor during the entire Roosevelt Administration, from 1933 to 1945, serving longer than any other Secretary in the Department's history.īy experience and temperament, Frances Perkins was well qualified to lead the Department during this crucial and trying period. Perkins, who had served brilliantly under him as New York State Commissioner of Labor while he was governor, was the logical choice and Labor was the logical place. He had already decided to place a woman somewhere in his Cabinet. The AFL had nominated Dan Tobin, head of the Teamsters, but President Roosevelt was determined to break precedent in more ways than one. ![]() She might also have felt odd because she was the first Secretary of Labor who had not been active in a trade union. Roosevelt made his appointments to the Cabinet that would help him guide the Nation through its worst ever economic crisis, his Secretary of Labor was said to feel "just a little odd." This was not surprising, since Frances Perkins was the only woman in the Cabinet and the first one ever appointed to such a high federal position.
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