Frances Perkins (1880-1965) was US Secretary of Labor in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration for the entirety of his presidency from 1933 to 1945.
The first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, Perkins was the architect of social security, a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, the 40-hour work week, bans on child labor, and many of the worker and fire safety standards we take for granted today.
The NYS Archives Partnership Trust has put online their recent Frances Perkins Virtual Lecture – “The Courage to Meddle,” presented by Mary Reid in collaboration with the Frances Perkins Center.
Perkins was also featured in the Summer 2025 issue of New York Archives magazine, which is available now.
Source link
