Secretary of Labor during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, 1933-1945, Frances Perkins was the first female cabinet member in U.S. history. She was a teacher immediately following graduation from college, and then joined the settlement-house movement. An advocate of social reform, she became secretary of the New York Consumers League, which investigated conditions in factories.

Much of her work with the league involved women and children, including lobbying for a reduction in their work week. New York governor Alfred E. Smith named her to the state industrial commission, and she later headed the state's industrial board. When Roosevelt was New York governor, Perkins was state industrial commissioner. As secretary of labor, she strengthened the department and championed such reforms as social security, federal public works and relief, and legislation for minimum wages and maximum housing, and the abolition of child labor.