On this day in 1933, Frances Perkins was sworn in as secretary of labor, the same day Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as president. Her programs were key to the New Deal program that dragged the U.S. out of the Great Depression. She also managed the design of the Social Security Act of 1935, which established both social security and unemployment insurance.
Born in 1880 in Boston, she attended both Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University, becoming the head of a New York advocacy group pushing for better labor conditions. She also worked in the New York state government, as an aid to both Gov. Al Smith and the then future-president, Roosevelt.
Her 12-year tenure was followed by her service on the U.S. Civil Service Commission, an agency that selected employees of the federal government based on their qualifications, as there had been a problem with employment patronage in government. After that, she taught at Cornell University until she passed away in 1965, at age 85.
You can learn more about Perkins at, where else, the Frances Perkins Center.
