Frances Perkins

Perkins spent her life fighting for working people and served as a driving force behind the creation of Social Security, the minimum wage and unemployment insurance, and she worked to ban child labor in the United States. As Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945 — the first woman to serve in a Cabinet position — she formulated policies and programs that bolstered the economy and helped working people across the country.

Podcast Episode

The Woman Behind the Weekend

The home of Frances Perkins could soon become a national park site — one of very few devoted to women’s history. Yet few people know this labor rights pioneer.

See more ›

Among her many accomplishments, Perkins also helped Jewish children immigrate to the United States during the Holocaust, and she oversaw part of the Civilian Conservation Corps, helping to put unemployed Americans back to work during the Depression.

This 50-acre homestead on the Damariscotta River in Newcastle, Maine, was first settled by Perkins’ family in the 1750s. It has been restored and serves as the only site dedicated to telling the full story of this self-made woman and pioneering national icon.