Frances Perkins

Frances Perkins was born 133 years ago today. We're big fans of Perkins here at Bitch HQ. Here's what the back of our Frances Perkins coffee mugs have to say about the incredible woman: "The first woman appointed to a presidential cabinet, Frances Perkins served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945. She was instrumental in bringing the labor movement into the New Deal coalition, and was also a force behind passing the Fair Labor Act, which established laws governing minimum wage, overtime, and a 40-hour workweek."

We thought we'd offer a few suggestions for how to honor the mother of the American labor movement's birthday. 

1935 was an interesting year, to say the least. Capitalism, the industrialization of the labor market, and, most importantly, the Great Depression, had combined to create a perfect storm that left American workers and their families facing unprecedented hardships with little help from the government to overcome them. President Roosevelt faced the gargantuan task of coming up with solutions to these problems, and to help him he appointed the first-ever female cabinet member, Secretary of Labor and mother of the American welfare state Frances Perkins.  Thanks to her, that year also got to see the passage of the Social Security Act.