Frances Perkins
This morning we wished a Happy Birthday to Frances Perkins who was born on April 10th in 1880. Appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member and architect of some of the most far reaching and important reforms and social legislation ever enacted in America. With her familiar tricorn hat (her mother had told her to always wear a hat that is wider than her cheekbones, to avoid looking “ridiculous”) planted firmly on her head, Frances Perkins prodded, pressured, and persuaded recalcitrant businessmen, labor leaders, and politicians to respond to the needs of the American people and end child labor, establish working conditions, fairer wages, reasonable working hours, unemployment insurance, and Social Security.
