Frances Perkins: The Greatest Woman that America Forgot
While this post serves mainly as a book review of the biography Frances Perkins: The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirsten Downey, it also highlights a tragic exclusion from our pantheon of great Civil Servants. Readers with even a passing familiarity of Frances Perkins (whose name adorns the U.S. Department of Labor’s headquarters in Washington D.C.) are likely to know next to nothing of the full scope of her service to the United States, most especially to its poorest, its most vulnerable, and its hardest working.
As the title suggests, Frances Perkins is largely responsible for the New Deal, the reforms and programs that helped establish Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and other safeguards that allowed the U.S. to recover from some of the worst economic fallout of the Great Depression, safeguards that continue as our social safety net to this day. She was likewise one of the New Deal’s most vocal, steadfast, and ardent supporters, and tasked with implementing many of its social & work programs.
Kirsten Downey goes further, providing readers with a plethora of additional Perkins accolades, achievements, and honors that individually should have made her a permanent fixture in every high school U.S history class. She was not only the first female Secretary of Labor, but the first female presidential cabinet member, carving a path for many future U.S. women to reach the upper echelons of power. In her time with both the Factory Investigating Commission and the New York State Industrial Commission, Frances Perkins worked tirelessly to develop and enact comprehensive occupational safety & health standards that to this day underpin many state & federal regulations.
Few cabinet secretaries can claim to have had a U.S. president tearfully beg for them to remain at their post. To this author’s knowledge, no person other than Frances Perkins can claim such a distinction from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As that detail suggests, and as Downey proves over the course of the biography, Frances Perkins may also have been FDR’s most trusted advisor, a responsibility that was not always easy to shoulder. Knowing how readily he could trust his long time friend & colleague’s intellect and instincts, Perkins often found herself bearing thankless responsibilities and odious assignments outside the purview of the Secretary of Labor, especially after others had already made a mess of the situation.
Downey points to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as one poignant example. Established during FDR’s first term, the NLRB would be responsible for enforcing the National Labor Relations Act and managing the relationship between labor & employers, a task Perkins was quite familiar with. Her qualifications aside, the NLRB logically seemed best suited to land in the Department of Labor. However, for the necessary legislation to make it through Congress, Roosevelt needed the support of Southern Democrats who were hostile towards anything viewed as helpful to labor unions. FDR relied on a tactic he found consistently appeased the conservative, male senators: “the ritualistic, public humiliation of Frances Perkins.” The NLRB was removed from the Department of Labor’s purview and made independent, publicly denying her the authority best suited to her expertise. Months later, Perkins was summoned to the White House, where she received a secret order from FDR to “fix the NLRB,” having become a mess without her guidance. However, FDR also ordered that under no circumstance was the public to know of her involvement nor was she to claim credit for any improvements, which was exactly what Perkins did.
Downey’s book is replete with dozens of such incidents, things Perkins accomplished with little to no credit, victories she achieved despite the constant berating and sexism she faced regularly as the first woman to rise to such political heights. Your read of this detailed and insightful biography will likely make you a member of the Frances Fan Club (fan in this instance standing for “fanatic”), prepared to tell anyone who will listen about the disservice history & memory have done to this exceptional human being.
As some final comments of the book itself rather than on its subject, the writing is exceptionally good, as Downey provides a perspective to the mindset, feelings, and opinions of Frances Perkins that gives the biography a personal touch. However, at times, Downey relies too much on reasonable but unnecessary (and a touch florid) extrapolation to put us in Perkins’ shoes. For example, the reader is told that Perkins stopped alone outside of an official’s office, adjusted her signature hat, her dress, took a deep breath, etc., before going in, dramatic details that seem unlikely to have come up in such specificity in the source materials and are arguably inappropriate for non-fiction. That criticism aside, the research and well-reasoned extrapolations from her research are exceptional, and give the reader an extremely detailed perspective of the political & personal environment Frances operated in.
A credit to Downey’s dedication to her subject, the book is particularly impressive for the use it makes of the limited primary sources and Perkins-authored material available. Rather than preserve them for posterity, Perkins chose to burn most of her personal papers & letters towards the end of her life, a fact that may have contributed to Downey’s resorting to the occasional authorial flourish to fill in blanks. Despite this hardship, readers will be at no loss covering the events of Perkins in her formative years, her years as a public servant, or in her twilight, as Downey endeavors to tell us the tale of Frances Perkins the human being, not just the historical figure. And finally, as any good historian strives to achieve in reviewing their subject, Downey does not pull punches. She credits Perkins where credit is due and faults her where there is objectively fault to be found. Perkins was exceptional, but she was also an imperfect person, and subject to the many constraints against women of her day. And that makes what she accomplished all the more spectacular.
Overall, the book is 5/5 as both a biography and as a tale of leadership under adversity. Moved to serve her fellow citizens to the fullest extent of her ability, Perkins’ story will deeply resonate with many of our readers.
You can order the book in paperback or e-book on Amazon and can find the audiobook on Audible.
Ethan Dazelle is a Policy & Law Advisor at the U.S. Department of Labor. When he is not writing book reviews for PMAA, Ethan is researching and writing on human rights, international law, & just about anything else that piques his interest. Be sure to check out Ethan’s other PMAA posts!
Have you read a book on an outstanding public servant that you want to review for PMAA’s blog? Email director@pmaa.us to learn more about becoming a guest author.