Labor Secretary Frances Perkins standing over President Franklin D. Roosevelt's shoulder as he signs the landmark Social Security Bill into law in 1935. (Library of Congress photo)

FRANCES PERKINS, born in Boston in 1880 was, among other things, an architect of the New Deal, a series of programs, reforms, and laws that directly impact all Americans today. I have been thinking about her a lot lately because Senate President Karen Spilka recently asked us to think about women with ties to Massachusetts who should be honored with a statue in our State House.

There are many women in our Commonwealth’s history deserving of such an honor, but I would argue that none has been more responsible for bettering the lives of as many people in the Commonwealth and beyond than Perkins.

Raised in Worcester and educated at Mount Holyoke, Perkins trained to be a social worker, and was drawn to public service after being an eyewitness to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York on March 25, 1911.

In a 1964 speech at Cornell, she recounted watching in horror as people crowded around windows decided between jumping or being consumed by fire. She saw 47 people plummet to their deaths. One hundred forty-six people  — mostly low-wage working women and immigrants — died in 18 minutes because of dangerous conditions that everyone knew about and no one wanted to address. She described it as “a never-to-be-forgotten reminder of why I had to spend my life fighting conditions that could permit such a tragedy.”  

Former labor secretary Frances Perkins, left, with Eleanor Roosevelt at the 1961 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. (Photo via Wikimedia from archives of International Ladies Garment Workers Union)

She became a formidable force fighting for worker safety. For years, she worked for the State of New York in various positions, for Gov. Franklin Roosevelt and others on a wide range of worker issues, including safety and workforce development, and she worked on creating a system of unemployment insurance in New York.

In 1933, then-President Roosevelt called on her to serve as the first woman ever appointed to a presidential cabinet, as his secretary of labor. She remains the longest-serving person to hold the position, there for more than 12 years.

Before taking the job, she made her demands to FDR, outlining a menu of programs to which she wanted him to commit, including a 40-hour work week, minimum wage, worker’s compensation, an end to child labor, unemployment insurance, Social Security, universal health care, and more. (She fell short of getting that last one thanks to a nascent private insurance industry and the American Medical Association, but I would argue that she laid the groundwork that got us to the Affordable Care Act, which will hopefully get us to single-payer someday.)

As George Martin lays out in painstaking detail in his great 1976 book Madam Secretary, Perkins set about figuring out how to do all of it, including the technical and political aspects. She operated inside of a man’s world, recruiting allies, vanquishing opponents, and making sure she had the ear of the president.

In the early days of the administration, she guided the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The president asked her to create and administer the Civilian Conservation Corps, which employed over 3 million men during the Depression.

1934, he asked her to chair the President’s Committee on Economic Security, and she laid the groundwork for its passage. In 1938, she helped craft and build support for the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established minimum wage, overtime pay, and outlawed child labor. In the end, she played a central role in writing New Deal legislation that changed the trajectory of our democracy and the lives of Americans.

There is evidence that she fought for Black and other marginalized people as she did her work, and one could argue that the concessions made in the New Deal that left out large swaths of people were made despite her best efforts. FDR had his “Brain Trust,” a group of advisors who served as his right-hand men. She is sometimes included in that group, but it was a men’s club, and she wasn’t truly allowed in. If they were his right hand, she was his left.

As secretary of labor, her purview included oversight of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). During the 1930s, as she watched the horror that was unfolding in Germany, despite strong opposition from the State Department, she developed creative ways to allow more Jewish refugees — and others resisting the Nazis — to come to the United States, undoubtedly saving lives (including those of the von Trapps).  

I look forward to reading Rebecca Brenner Graham’s forthcoming book about this facet of Perkins’ life. In 1940, under pressure, FDR transferred control of the INS from Labor to the Justice Department, closing the door on Perkins’s efforts to welcome and save refugees.

Her work was remarkable for anyone, never mind for someone who wasn’t legally allowed to vote until she was 40 years old. Like many women in history, her accomplishments were (and still are) overshadowed by the men around her. She is a daughter of Massachusetts, to be celebrated.

I was excited to answer Senate President Spilka’s call to nominate a great Massachusetts woman to be honored at our State House, and nominate Secretary Perkins. April 30 was the deadline for nominations. I look forward to hearing soon about what happens next.

Joyce Linehan is special assistant to the president at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She serves on the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and was chief of policy and planning under Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.