Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Volebaum.
Speaker 1: Here there is a single person in American history who
Speaker 1: is primarily responsible for creating the Social Security Program, along
Speaker 1: with government protection of workers' rights like a minimum wage
Speaker 1: and maximum work hours. But for a long time, most
Speaker 1: of the American public had never heard her name. Francis
Speaker 1: Perkins was the first woman to become a member of
Speaker 1: a president's cabinet, as Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty three. Her name and story have sometimes
Speaker 1: been downplayed for a number of possible reasons. She herself
Speaker 1: was not an in the spotlight sort of person and
Speaker 1: often deferred credit to FDR and some of the men
Speaker 1: who later wrote about the New Deal may have neglected
Speaker 1: to research her contributions. But the Department of Labor National
Speaker 1: Office bears her name. Two of her residences are now
Speaker 1: preserved as historic landmarks. A biography and separately, a novel
Speaker 1: tell the story of her life. Today, let's talk about
Speaker 1: how Perkins came to be a quiet force of advocacy
Speaker 1: who helped create our social safety net. Francis Perkins was
Speaker 1: born as Fanny Coraley Perkins in Boston in eighteen eighty,
Speaker 1: with family roots in Maine. After graduating from Mount Holyoke
Speaker 1: College in nineteen oh two, she pursued a career as
Speaker 1: a social worker, and later continued her education at the
Speaker 1: Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and then at Columbia University, where she earned an
Speaker 1: MA in social economics in nineteen ten. For the next
Speaker 1: two years, she served as the executive secretary of the
Speaker 1: Consumers League of New York, where she successfully lobbied for
Speaker 1: improved wages and working conditions, particularly for women and children.
Speaker 1: It was during that time that Perkins witnessed a life
Speaker 1: changing event that would shift the course of her own
Speaker 1: professional life, as well as the future of American labor conditions.
Speaker 1: On March twenty fifth of nineteen eleven, Perkins was having
Speaker 1: tea with a friend in Manhattan when a commotion broke
Speaker 1: out nearby. It turned out to be what's now known
Speaker 1: as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of the deadliest
Speaker 1: US workplace disasters in history. The fire broke out on
Speaker 1: the upper floors of the ten story building that housed
Speaker 1: the factory and claimed the lives of one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty six garment workers, most of whom were young women immigrants,
Speaker 1: some as young as fourteen years. They were blocked from
Speaker 1: escaping because stairways and exit doors had been locked intentionally
Speaker 1: by management in attempts to prevent unauthorized break time and
Speaker 1: potential theft. There were no sprinkler systems installed. The fire
Speaker 1: escape stairs that were available didn't lead to the ground,
Speaker 1: and when firefighters arrived, their ladders and hoses couldn't reach
Speaker 1: the top floors. Some women jumped to their debts rather
Speaker 1: than burn. This tragic and preventable incident spurred worker safety
Speaker 1: legislation and union involvement with the help of people like Perkins.
Speaker 1: Before the article. This episode is based on how Stuff Work.
Speaker 1: Spoke with Kirsten Downey, an award winning journalist and author
Speaker 1: of the biography of Perkins called The Woman Behind the
Speaker 1: New Deal, The Life of Francis Perkins, FDR's Secretary of
Speaker 1: Labor and His Moral Conscience. Downey said Perkins had already
Speaker 1: been investigating workplace problems as a young social worker in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: but was in the neighborhood when the fire broke out.
Speaker 1: They ran across Washington Square Park and got there just
Speaker 1: as the first people started jumping out of the windows
Speaker 1: and hitting the ground. She was already thinking about workplace abuses,
Speaker 1: and because she was the key person administering the New
Speaker 1: York State Factory Investigating Commission that led to the creation
Speaker 1: of all our fire codes. By the time she was
Speaker 1: in her early thirties, she had crafted legislation in New
Speaker 1: York that led to exit signs, occupancy limits on rooms, sprinklers,
Speaker 1: buyer escapes, and how wide doors had to be to
Speaker 1: escape safely. Following the horrific fire, Perkins grew even more
Speaker 1: resolute about revolutionizing the country's dysfunctional labor system. She moved
Speaker 1: up through several roles in New York civil services in
Speaker 1: the nineteen teens and twenties, during which time she also
Speaker 1: married an economist by the name of Paul Wilson, with
Speaker 1: whom she had a daughter. Newspapers from the nineteen thirties
Speaker 1: report that she kept her maiden name because at the time, A.
Speaker 1: Wilson was secretary to New York's mayor and she didn't
Speaker 1: want her career to interfere with his. Perkins was appointed
Speaker 1: by then New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt as the
Speaker 1: Industrial Commissioner of the State of New York in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine. When the stock market crashed that year, Perkins
Speaker 1: was the one who encouraged FDR to take swift and
Speaker 1: serious action. When he created a committee on Employment, he
Speaker 1: appointed Perkins to head up the efforts, and when he
Speaker 1: was first elected president in nineteen thirty three, he tapped
Speaker 1: Perkins to be his Secretary of Labor, making her the
Speaker 1: first woman to become a cabinet member. After all, that
Speaker 1: worked with each other for about twenty years, and she
Speaker 1: was a trusted friend. However, despite Perkins's impressive achievements over
Speaker 1: the course of her career to that point, the American
Speaker 1: public was less than welcoming when she arrived in Washington.
Speaker 1: Downey said when FDR picked her, there was a huge backlash.
Speaker 1: A lot of people were appalled that he named a
Speaker 1: woman to his cabinet. Remember, women didn't get the right
Speaker 1: to vote until nineteen twenty, when Francis Perkins was forty
Speaker 1: years old, So she had a whole career to age
Speaker 1: forty doing all these important things and didn't even have
Speaker 1: the right to vote. When FDR was elected president. It
Speaker 1: was only twelve years after women got the right to vote,
Speaker 1: so you can see why people were shocked about it. Ironically,
Speaker 1: even unions opposed her appointment. Downey said a lot of
Speaker 1: unions didn't permit female members and were particularly insulted because
Speaker 1: they wanted a good union man to be Secretary of Labor.
Speaker 1: Francis Perkins had a background as a government administrator and
Speaker 1: a social worker, and they were suspicious. But in fact,
Speaker 1: because of the things she did, she was able to
Speaker 1: essentially reshape the labor movement, which was dying when she
Speaker 1: became Secretary of Labor. By the time she died, unionized
Speaker 1: employees made up one third of the American workforce. Perkins
Speaker 1: had a lot on her agenda when she made the
Speaker 1: move to DC, and some of her biggest ideas have
Speaker 1: proven to have a lasting impact on Americans to this day.
Speaker 1: The Social Security Act was enacted in nineteen thirty five,
Speaker 1: after just two years of Perkins being in office. It
Speaker 1: created a system of transfer payments that relies on working
Speaker 1: people supporting people who have retired or who are out
Speaker 1: of work for other reasons. Provides unemployment insurance plus aid
Speaker 1: for dependent mothers and children, victims of work related accidents,
Speaker 1: and people with blindness and other physical issues. The law
Speaker 1: was part of FDR's Second New Deal initiatives to help
Speaker 1: Americans cope with social and economic changes in the wake
Speaker 1: of the Great Depression. Downey said FDR didn't run saying
Speaker 1: he'd do that, and it wasn't anything he really cared
Speaker 1: about hugely, as he had a bunch of things on
Speaker 1: his plate. Basically, Francis Perkins created the lifeline we're using today,
Speaker 1: she continued. Unemployment Insurance is a national network of state
Speaker 1: unemployment systems and is the mechanism we're using to get
Speaker 1: money to people across America who've lost their jobs through
Speaker 1: no fault of their own. We've got fifty states and
Speaker 1: some territories using the same basic mechanism, so almost all
Speaker 1: of the existing social safety network has her imprint. She
Speaker 1: set up all these programs that spun off into other departments,
Speaker 1: but were there because of her handiwork. Perkins also helped
Speaker 1: craft the Fair Labor Standards Act of nineteen thirty eight,
Speaker 1: the law that established a minimum wage and maximum work
Speaker 1: hours and banned child labor. The Department of Labor was
Speaker 1: also tasked with overseeing the Immigration and Naturalization Service i
Speaker 1: INS until nineteen forty during the growing persecution of Nazi Germany,
Speaker 1: Perkins worked for expanded immigration rights and increased aid to
Speaker 1: European refugees, especially Jewish children, despite pushback from other sectors
Speaker 1: of the American government. When FDR died in nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: Perkins was the longest serving Labor Secretary and one of
Speaker 1: only two Cabinet secretaries to serve the entire twelve years
Speaker 1: of its presidency. Of all the things on the agenda
Speaker 1: she brought with her to Washington in nineteen thirty three,
Speaker 1: only one remained unaccomplished, universal access to healthcare. Biins wrote
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty five, these social and economic reforms of
Speaker 1: the past twelve years will be regarded in the future
Speaker 1: as a turning point in our national life, a turning
Speaker 1: from careless neglect of human values and toward an order
Speaker 1: of mutual and practical benevolence within a free, competitive industrial economy.
Speaker 1: The next year, Perkins published a best selling biography of
Speaker 1: FDR titled The Roosevelt I Knew, and served as the
Speaker 1: head of the American delegation to the International Labor Organization
Speaker 1: in Paris. President Harry Truman that appointed her to the
Speaker 1: United States Civil Service Commission, a position she held until
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three. After leaving government service, Perkins was active
Speaker 1: as a teacher and lecturer at the New York State
Speaker 1: School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University until
Speaker 1: her death in nineteen sixty five at age eighty five.
Speaker 1: In her personal life, Perkins had often spent time at
Speaker 1: her family's homestead in Newcastle, Maine, a sweeping riverfront property
Speaker 1: where the family farm fished and killed bricks of local clay.
Speaker 1: She was buried nearby and next to her husband, who
Speaker 1: had passed in nineteen fifty two, that often lived apart
Speaker 1: during the last twenty years of his life, as had
Speaker 1: struggled with mental health issues and been in and out
Speaker 1: of various facilities. Today it's thot. Perkins also had a
Speaker 1: long term romantic relationship with fellow social activist Mary Harriman Romsey.
Speaker 1: The two women lived together in Washington, albeit briefly. The
Speaker 1: National Park Service included their story in its twenty sixteen
Speaker 1: study of the Recognition and Preservation of Sites with Queer Heritage,
Speaker 1: though the current administration has removed that study from the
Speaker 1: NPS website. It's really interesting if you're into landmarks in
Speaker 1: queer history, and you can still find it by googling
Speaker 1: LGBTQ America NPS. The National Park Service was writing about
Speaker 1: Perkins because the Perkins family Homestead had been listed on
Speaker 1: the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine and became the Francis Perkins National Monument in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. Its grounds and trails are open to the
Speaker 1: public year round from dawn till dusk, and the buildings
Speaker 1: are open in the summer. They're run by the Francis
Speaker 1: Perkins Center, which works to preserve her legacy by inspiring
Speaker 1: women to go into public service and by educating about
Speaker 1: the lasting effects of the New Deal and how our
Speaker 1: government can provide economic security and social justice to its
Speaker 1: citizens through policies like it. Downey said, the bottom line
Speaker 1: is that Francis perkins life's work was recognizing that in
Speaker 1: the course of human events, bad stuff happens, and it's
Speaker 1: predictable that it happens, and what you want to do
Speaker 1: is create a system of elasticity that helps you have
Speaker 1: a solution to fix it. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article Francis Perkins, the Unsung Creator of US Social
Speaker 1: Security on HowStuffWorks dot Com. Written by Michelle Constantinofsky. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership of how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot com. It is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more
Speaker 1: podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.