Joe Biden has been asked to designate a national monument to the former US labor secretary, Frances Perkins, by members of Congress and groups including the National Park Conservation Association.
Perkins, who served three terms under Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945, was the first woman to be appointed to a presidential cabinet and the longest-serving secretary of labor in US history.
In 1911, Perkins was a witness to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City, which killed 146 people, mostly young women, and was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in US history. The tragedy greatly affected Perkins and helped inspire her labor activism in the subsequent decades.
She said of her position: “I came to Washington to work for God, FDR and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen.”
As secretary of labor, Perkins was one of the driving forces behind Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and pushed for many longstanding labor policies including a 40-hour work week, a federal minimum wage, unemployment compensation, worker’s compensation, the abolition of child labor, and social security. “The New Deal began on March 25, 1911. The day that the Triangle factory burned,” Perkins said.
The Frances Perkins Center in Newcastle, Maine, has offered to donate a portion of the 57-acre farm where Perkins spent much of her life from childhood to adulthood to the National Park Service.
In 2014, the homestead of Frances Perkins in Maine was designated a national historic landmark. The national monument designation would put part of the site under federal control through the National Parks Service.
“Frances Perkins made her home in Maine. She was a trailblazer, the first female presidential cabinet member, the mother of the modern labor movement, and a pioneering advocate for social justice, economic security and workers’ rights. By designating the Frances Perkins Homestead national historical landmark as a national monument, more people could learn about this incredible woman and the power of government to be a force for good,” said Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine.
“As ranking member of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of the Interior, I fully support this effort and hope to see a national monument designation move forward.”
