Welcome. Hello, and aloha from hawaii. Thank you so much, bill. I would also like to single out alley for all your logistic work in making this possible in the face of a global pandemic. Putting best of circumstances, and the challenges of bringing us together and keeping us safe as presenting 1 million new complications. Thank you for everything youve done to make this happen. Im here tonight to talk about something wonderful. Something almost miraculous and marked a radical transformation when it occurred. It was contrary to centuries of what had gone on before, when america actually prided itself on being a dog eat dog culture those where the times of ole say fat economy and those, days poverty and childhood and old age were blamed on the victim. This suffering was believed to be an immutable condition of human life. And the first centuries of our new republic, human beings were left to sink or swim and the face of economic prosperity, and unavoidable economic downturn. Some prosper it, but many were lost under the waves that, starting in 1933, along came this Remarkable Development that we now call the new deal it gave us the social Safety Network that has allowed people to whether the ups and downs customary and the ordinary human life. This happened in response to the terrifying event we now call the great depression. We saw the latest iteration of this miracle for ourselves in march of 2020, only two years ago it was a time that terrifying things were occurring we saw the advent of a frightening new disease that we did not initially know how to treat, and that so threatened our Health System that we and many other countries around the world decided to shut down our economy, close our schools, our offices, and most of our stories we protected peoples lives, but at the expense of stripping millions of their livelihoods in 2020, in addition to the fear of illness and death, Many Americans also faced the fear of starvation thats when the miracle happened on march 27th, 2020, congress did something amazing and surprising now, we know these guys never seem to get along, no matter how big of a threat or problem both parties blame the issue on the other guys they spend their time talking or tweeting with people who already agree with them reading new sources that mostly confirmed their own views but at that time, both sides came together to Work Together in defense of the common enemy as america braced for the onslaught of the covid epidemic, a temporarily United Congress reached for a tool that would help cushion the blow with widespread job losses looming, congress voted almost unanimously in late march, 2020, to expand the nations unemployment system to provide an alternate source of income to americas workers. And the next 12 months, a record 48 Million People found economic refuge through state employment Insurance Programs, up from just 5 million the year before the pandemic even independent trump contractors were covered it was a vital lifeline, allowing people who had lost their jobs to feed their families and heat their homes when the worlds economy shut down unknown to all but a few however is the name of the person who deserves the credit for creating the program. It was a woman named Francis Perkins, a social reformer from new york who paved the way for Unemployment Insurance in america. Today she is known, at least to those who know her at all mostly as the first woman to serve in a president ial cabinet. That indeed was unique, women had only had the right to vote for 13 years when Francis Perkins became the u. S. Secretary of labor under president Franklin Delano roosevelt. But perkins role is far greater. She was arguably one of the most importance and successful progressive politicians, male or female, in u. S. History. That is because national Unemployment Insurance is only one of perkinss accomplishments. She was also the driving force behind Social Security, behind the 40 hour work week, the ban on child labor. The International Fire safety code, and the National Labor relations act, which gave workers for the first time the right to organize and form unions. Perkins legacy is everywhere today. That brings us to the central question that i am raising with you tonight. Who was Francis Perkins and how did she get so much done . How did a social worker turn herself into a miracle worker . That is what i am planning to tell you about tonight. Im going to start with a short reading from my book, from the prologue, from the woman behind the new deal. Anywhere on a chilly february night in 1943, a middle aged woman went unexpectedly to meet with her employer on east 56 street in new york city. She clutched a scrap a table with hastily written notes. Finally, ushered into a study, the woman brushed aside heard nervousness and spoke confidently. They bantered casually for a while, as was their style. Stand she turned serious. Her dark luminous eyes holding his gaze. He wanted her to take an assignment, but she decided that she wouldnt accept it unless he allowed her to do it her own way. She held up a piece of paper in her hand and he motions for her to continue. She kicked off the items. A 40 hour work week, a minimum wage, workers compensations, unemployment compensation, a federal law banning child labor, direct federal aid for unemployment relief, Social Security, a revitalized Public Employment service, and National Health insurance. She watched his eyes to make sure he was paying attention and understood the implications of each demand. She braced for his response, he often chose expediency over idealism and was capable of callousness, even of cruelty. The scope of her list was breathtaking. She was proposing a fundamental and radical restructuring of American Society with enactment of social welfare and labor laws. To succeed she would have to overcome opposition from the courts, business, labor unions, and conservatives. Nothing like this has ever been done in the United States before she said. You know that, dont you . The man sat across from her in his wheelchair, amid the clutter of boxes and rumpled rugs. Soon he would head to washington d. C. To be sworn in as the 32nd president of the United States. He would inherit the worst economic crisis in the nations history. And era of rampant speculation had come to an end. The stock market had collapsed, rendering investments valueless. Thanks for shutting down, stripping people of their lifetime savings. About a third of workers were unemployed, wages were falling, hundreds of thousands were homeless. Real estate prices had plummeted and millions of homeowners face foreclosure. His choice of labor secretary would be one of his most important early decisions. His nominee must understand economic unemployment issues, but the equally effective as a coalition builder. He was a handsome man with aqua Line Features and he studied the plane matronly women sitting before him. No one was more qualified for the job, she knew as much about labor law and administration as anyone in the country. Hed known her for more than 20 years. The last time in albany when she had worked at her side, he trusted her and knew that she would never betray him. Placing a woman in a liberal secretaries job would expose him to criticism and ridicule. Her list proposals would store heated opposition, even among his loyal supporters. The eighthour day was a standard play of the socialist party. Unemployment insurance seemed laughably improbable. Direct aid to the unemployed would threaten his Campaign Pledge of a balanced budget. Still, he said he would backer. It was a job she had prepared for all of her life. She had changed her name, her appearance, even her age to make herself a more Effective Labor advocate. She had studied how many think so she could better succeed in a mans world shifts. She had spent decades building crucial alliances. Still, she told the president elect that she needed time to make her decision. The next day she visited her husband, a patient in a sanatorium. Who was having a good day, then he understood what he told him about the job offer. His first impulse was to fret for himself. Asking how this new job might affect him. When she assured him that he could remain where he was and her weekend visits would continue he gave his permission. That night in bed, the woman cried in deep whaling sobs the frightened her teenage daughter. She knew the job would change her life forever. She would open herself to Constant Media scrutiny, harsh judgment from her peers, and public criticism for doing a job a woman had never done before. Its yet, she knew she must accept the offer. As her grandmother had told her, whenever a door open to you you had no choice but to walk through it. The next day, she called Franklin Roosevelt and accepted the offer. Francis perkins would become the nations first female secretary of labor. As a turned up, almost all of it unfolded as she had hoped. The Social Security act which Francis Perkins champions and which passed in 1935 gave us Unemployment Insurance. The tool that provided an income for 48 Million People last year. And Social Security, which is the main source of income to some 68 million old and disabled people in america. Let me stop and say that again, it is so incredible. Last year, 48 Million People were on Unemployment Insurance. Its 68 million were on Social Security. When we shut the u. S. Economy down, about 116 Million People receive their income through programs that Francis Perkins established through programs that their own past earnings and titled them to receive. There are 259 million adults in the u. S. So just make that clear, 45 of americans were dependent on these key new deal programs last year. 45 , almost half. So what else did she do . The fair labor standards act, passed in 1938 set the standard of the 40 hour work week. A minimum wage which she hoped would be a living wage, a challenge that remains for us all. A ban on child labor and the concept of overtime pay for workers asked to work long hours. This is a genius idea because it allows workers to work longer hours mostly if they wish to do so at higher pay. But punishes employers financially if they ask for a it too often. Major she was a major supporter of the federal housing administration, what we call death h a Insurance Program to help buy people buy houses which allowed people to purchase healthy homes, hygienic, with running water, and indoor plumbing. In america, that was a very important new development. Over the decades, some 50 million American Families and 8 million today have become homeowners thanks to fha insurance. She was also the primary architect of the civilian corps which put 3 million young when and women on state and national parks, be forcing projects, and combatting soil erosion. A lot of the nice features we all enjoy in the state park today were as a result of the work of the cc sea, now the ccc was fdrs idea but he asked perkins to figure out the details and she did. That is not all. She was the largest single supporter of the cabinet for two Massive Public works programs that we call the wpa and the butthe blue rid ge it rebuilt americas infrastructure and some of the things they did including the lincoln tunnel, the blue ridge parkway, the highway to the florida keys, the east bay bridge in San Francisco and hundreds of schools, court houses, and park structures all of the country. That is not all, she helped raft the it gave the workers try to organize, to collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. In 1932, only 5 of workers were unionized. About half of todays level. By the time she died, about a third of the American Workforce was unionized, propelling millions of people into the middle class for the first time. That is not all, the Immigration Department then was part of the Labor Department and she brought tens of thousands of immigrants to the United States to get them out of the hands of the nazis before most americans even had any idea of the extent of the dangers that they face their. National Health Insurance . It never passed. There is too much opposition from the American Medical Association who said they would kill Social Security to prevent with a called socialized medicine. Fdr backed off to save Social Security. We continue to wrestle with the problem today. Quite a bit, right . That is just the years when she was 52 to 59. She had remarkable accomplishments from the time she was 30 until she was 85, advising the Kennedy Administration until shortly before death, it was 55 years of work reshaping americans, americas of social safety net. So, Francis Perkins achieved all of her agenda. Who was she and how did she do it, how did that happen . Thats what the question got me started on the book. I first heard her name myself as a joke back in 1998. I went to work as a young reporter at the washington post, i grew up, as bill mentioned you, mostly in hawaii in the panama canal zone. I was a newcomer to the city, i was trying to learn my way around. I took a tour bus of the city. At some point when we are going down among them all, the tourist driver told a joke. This is what it was, which American Woman had the worst childhood birth experience . Francis perkins, she spent 12 years in labor. It drew a big laugh on the bus, i have to say i love to. It is a funny joke. But i felt a little bad that i laughed and i remember her name. And then, i noticed over the years past, over the 20 years that i spent at the washington post, that i kept hearing her name, it was like a distant echo. In all the issues we covered, news developed around things like workplace pools, workplace discrimination, and funding Social Security. I heard again and again about what francis had done to establish this program and that program. I began to be very surprised that i knew so little about her. So few others did as well. I also became increasingly amazed by what she had accomplished as i observed events in washington d. C. Over the 20 years. I started to see how difficult it is to get progress simply by legislation. The lobbyists who controlled the brains of power figure out ways to bottle up most things from happening. Even when it is obvious that there is a crisis route looming. I witnessed this over and over at the post, but also literally when i served on the staff of the financial crisis inquiry commission, looking at the causes of the financial meltdown of 2008. It was a preventable crisis but washington could not or would not take the steps to stop it from happening. And this, again, takes us back to Francis Perkins. How did she do so much when we know how hard it is to make these kinds of changes . You might be saying, oh yeah, oh maybe she knew a lot back then. It must have been easier back then. The lobbyists werent so strong. The courts wont so a hostile. But conservatives must not have been so hateful. But thats not true. She did most of these things in times that parallel our own. There are some amazing, even eerie similarities between our times and harris. She was born in a time of rapid change like our own, with many Technological Developments causing seismic shifts in the workplace. There is a huge influx of immigration that changed the population, and started a lot of resentment. And the gap between the rich and the poor was growing wider every day. The role of women was changing to. She and the women of her generation had to reinvent themselves. Imagine themselves in a new world. She was born in 1880. James garfield was president. There was a long string of republican president s during her lifetime. Now, times were tough when she was born. In fact, there was a big downturn in the 18 80s. And for those of you who have been to disney world, youll know when you visit the Haunted House ride, thats where the image of the Haunted House comes from. A big, abandoned, foreclosed victorian house that people cant afford anymore. Lets the time and which Francis Perkins grew up our families break business collapsed, and the country was in a downturn. So just like we always do an american when times get hard, the Perkins Family moved. They moved to massachusetts. Her father opened a stationery store, and she grew up middle class. Her parents were renters. Still, they managed to centered to college at mount holy oak, where girls could save on expenses by sharing in the housekeeping. He wanted to get a job as a social worker in new york city, but she got turned down. Instead, she worked at home and worked a series of tempt jobs filling in with teachers who were on leave. I think a lot of american young people could identify with that. It took a couple years for her to get a regular job, and she had moved to chicago to do it. She was teaching at a girl School Called fairy hall. It was there that she started volunteering at a settlement house and downtown chicago, led by the social worker jane adams. There, Francis Perkins flicked with low wage workers, and helped win them with their financial and family problems. She saw how bad conditions where for the meatpackers, how pressured they were, a little leisure time they had. How their families were buckling under the pressures they were feeling. This is something described so clearly by player in the jungle. Francis perkins saw older keep people get kicked to the career when there was an economic down turn. She saw that people how people who scraped by could be destroyed by even a brief period of unemployment if they lost their jobs and had no savings. She began to see that much was needed to improve peoples lives. She went to graduate school in new york city, and there, she had another shocking and lifechanging experience. She witnessed the triangle fire, one of the most famous and ducks trial accidents of the early 20th century. Now, the company made gibson girl process. Youll remember those philly, beautiful blouses that we see from that area. Their factory was located on the eighth, ninth, tenth floors of a building and greenwich village. Women were lined up shoulder to shoulder at the song machines. The leftover fabric pushed down through slots behind the sewing machine on to the ground oil from the machines dropped on the fabric, and men smoked while they worked. A fire broke out on a sunny spring day in march of 1911. It was a saturday afternoon. Remember, then, people typically worked six days a week. Workers were locked in and trapped Francis Perkins was having tea with a friend nearby when the fire broke out. They heard the bells and shots and ran across Washington Square park. They got there just as the first track workers started to jump out the windows. About 146 people died that day, either from being burned alive, stampeded, or jumping to their deaths to escape the flames. It was not a freak accident. Its been estimated that 1000 people a day die in workplace accidents in that era. Now, many thousands of new yorkers witnessed the fire. But Francis Perkins became determined to do something about it. She decided regulations when needed to stop these abuses from happening. She decided it needed to stop. But francis was realizing it wasnt gonna be easy. D toshe knew she would need to convince people who didnt share her fetus. She realized that chameleon like, she would need to adapt herself to the conditions in the world in which she lived, not just wish it to be different. It was part of her great Emotional Intelligence. From her twenties, she began changing herself to make herself more effective. My book is full of examples of ways she got things done. But let me tell you just a few. First of all, her real name wasnt friends. It was fanny. Fanny quarterly perkins. She started off as a women called fanny. Thats a name that has some obvious disadvantages. In her early twenties, she switched her name to frances. People have says wondered why she chose the name francis. Some people think it was a decision to try to pick a gender neutral name or people wouldnt be quite sure if she was a man or a woman but in any case, she changed her name. Around that same time, she changed her faith to. She converted to a pisko paleo nestle. She was devoutly religious, but its also worth noting the Episcopalian Church personal agenda. She began attending a new church in lake forest, near the school where she was working, where her fellow parishioners or members of the armor family and the swifts. This is part of what she seems to have embarked upon, which was a strategy of cultivating rich and powerful friends who had the ability to make changes. She changed her appellate little affiliation when she realized it would be a social stigma. In the early twenties, before she can vote, francis was a member of the socialist party, but when she entered in public life, she registered as a democrat. Later, when she was contacted by historian investigating that era, she denied that she had never been a socialist at all. Instead, she cultivated republicans. She sought out republicans of integrity and enlisted them in her plans. She sent them notes of congratulations when they got promoted, kind notes of condolence when they lost a family member. She took speaking engagements and crowds are people didnt agree with her viewpoints. She went to the south to explain what they were doing in washington, even though a lot of what they were doing was unpopular there. She learned to talk to people from different backgrounds, learned to convince them. She learned how to make humor learned how to use who merrick to make her points. Getting people to laugh and as a modern no, id like to say i spent ten years going through her papers, and i never found a single mean tweet. She had a genius for recognizing people with talent and intelligence she reached across the aisle to make Common Ground with them. She picked out harold dickeys, a progressive from illinois, to run the wpa, and suggested him to fdr. She picked another progressive republican, john wine of New Hampshire as the american to head the interNational Labor organization. He became our u. S. Ambassador to great britain, forging an important friendship with the british when it was most needed during world war ii. Imagine that . Working effectively, and not insulting to people whose votes you need to get things done. Francis perkins learned early how to talk to a hostile crowd and bring them around. She said later that she learned to talk to people in public because of her work in the suffrage movement. She gave an incredible anecdote of how she did it. During the suffrage movement, it was so difficult to make the case that Women Deserved the right to vote. Even the avenues they had to make the case was very limited. So what women would do, is they would take a soapbox, go to a corner in a busy city, where there was a saloon on all four corners. They would pull the soapbox out by outside a saloon, and one of them would stand outside the saloon and begin to talk about the need for women to have the right to vote. A front would stand behind her, holding up the sign, votes for women. The man inside the bar, drinking, after a while, they would notice there were somewhat young women out there making a ruckus. Theyve got to take a look. Sometimes, they were interested. A lot of the time, they were laughing or jeering at the women. But in any case, it came out and it drew a crowd. Francis perkins noticed that usually, in the crowd, even of the people who were jeering and laughing, there was one person who had a sympathetic look on their face. They realized the young woman is being ridiculed by people. She would turn to that man and say hello, could you help us, please . My friend is having a hard time holding the banner aloft. Could you hold the other side . And the men would come up to the front, or friend would go to the side, holding votes for women, the men would be on the other side, and now, Francis Perkins is preaching about the need for women to have the right to vote, and behind her are a man and a woman standing to make the case. Then, after a while, she could see another sympathetic face. Oh, my friend is really tired. Do you think you can come and help . And then, you have another man come and hed take the other side. Francis would continue with her talk about how Women Deserve the right to vote. But behind her would be two men holding the banner high. These were some of the tricks of the trade that Francis Perkins used to learn how to convince an audience that might not have been receptive. Because a woman standing on a soapbox backed by two men looks very different to a male crowd than a woman with a frail friend standing behind her. Now, Francis Perkins took this need she had to work across the aisle very seriously. She was quite religious, as i said before. She believed in praying for political enemies. She tried not to hate her political opponents when they were selfish or shortsighted. She would pray for them. Sometimes, and made her blood boil, though, to say them by name, so she started to pray for them in categories, like people who bear false witness. She prayed for them, but she felt some relief. When she set up programs, she made sure they actually worked so people would have confidence in them. The civilian conservation core was one of those programs that turned out to be overwhelmingly popular. Its amazing how well Social Security is operated after all these years. Now, some of the things that Francis Perkins did or just funny. At one point, she changed her age. Now, that couldve been female vanity. A lot of women wish they were younger. But by making herself two years younger, she made herself the same age as her boss, franklin and Eleanor Reese about. Anyone whos ever visited a dating site knows that men think women are much preferable. They think women who are older are much older. And Francis Perkins began representing herself around the time as having been born in 1882, the same year as fdr, making her the same age as fdr. I think that was one of the more interesting pieces of Emotional Intelligence. She also changed her appearance to better help her succeed in a mans world. She had noticed that most men respected their mothers and gave mothers more honor than other women. So she began adopting a matronly persona, dark suits, pearls at the neck, hair swept into a bomb, try corner half. You can see a picture, here is Frances Perkins as she looked in the 30s. Now, in her youth Francis Perkins was described as perked, porky, fashionable, even dimpled. But after that, she was described as matronly. Some people even called her mom perkins, which he hated. Most women want to be beautiful and attract men, but francis consciously assumed a persona. She was only 33 and still single, still hoping to marry when she did that. But by looking dependable, respectable, and matronly, it made her seem more trustworthy too. I think that is the secret of Francis Perkins life, she applied Emotional Intelligence to the world around her. Even in the most dire of circumstances, she found it made a difference. Now doing good does not always mean there will be a big personal payoff. Sometimes there is no payoff, sometimes you do things because they are simply the right thing to do. Francis perkins certainly didnt get rich because of what she did. In contrast, i might add, to the many politicians today. Instead, she suffered for what she did. There was a huge backlash against the new deal from business and social conservatives who didnt like Social Security or the fair labor standards act. She suffered a humiliating impeachment because of her failure to deport harry bridges, a Pacific Coast union leader who is accused of being a communist. He had been born in australia, which meant he could be deported. Something employers wondered because he was stirring labor activism. Abuse was heat on her and the roosevelts astute politicians as they were seldom stood up for her in public. Though she had many public successes, she had a tragic personal life. She married but her husband had bipolar disorder. At the time, there is no treatment, and her daughter inherited the same ailment. It became a lonely existence. Their care was expensive and the mentally ill seldom thank their caregivers for what they have done. Francis perkins had to work hard to provide for them. The essential irony of this is, if she had a happy life of easy and good marriage, would she have done what she did . That brings us to another question here. How has it happened that she is so little known today . I describe to you the long list of all the things that she had accomplished. Truly extraordinary. How did she get erased . Well, theres a couple of reasons. She didnt like reporters, especially, she actually despised many of them were being shallow and short sighted. Meanspirited even. Other people in the new deal administration, especially franklin and his a very able wife eleanor, astutely cultivated the press. Reporters came to blame fdr reporters came to praise fdr and eleanor for what went right, and blame francis for went went wrong. Part of the reason she avoided them was to protect her husbands privacy and that of her daughter. Sexism was sexism was a problem for her to. Even when she played a key role, many of the men involved would decline for mentioning her in the memos. As though they would be seen as less if they were associating with a woman. Some men in the cabinet were spitefully jealous of her friendship with fdr, which they found inexplicable. Later, the same sexism among the scholars in the middle of the 20th centurys, those responsible for some of the several accounts of the new deal chose to overlook for dismiss Francis Perkins contributions. I would like you to take a look at some of the books about the new deal that you may have, including some of it in your own home library. Once you have read my book, you will be amazed at what was omitted. Even amid all this criticism, Francis Perkins took enormous pride in what she had accomplished. Her strong release that and her strong religious convictions gave her strength at the end of her life. She had done it all because she wanted to make the world a better place, and she did. Imagine our World Without Social Security, without Unemployment Insurance. If you have ever enjoyed a weekend off work thank Francis Perkins for the creation of the 40 hour work week. But she didnt do it for the glory or the same, one letter to me sums up her motivation. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote her a letter as she stepped down as secretary of labor. He congratulated her on her successes and he noted ruefully that she had faced much criticism in doing so. She responded to him, i came to work for god, fdr, and the millions of plane forgotten, common working men she told. Him with the ps the last conversation i had with fdr was of such a nature that i could say with the saddest my cup runneth over and surely goodness and mercy shall fall on me. This lecture series celebrates great lives and i hope you will remember this talk tonight as a celebration of Francis Perkins, a person who had a truly great life and who made all of our lives a good deal better to. And i welcome your questions. Well, as you can tell im not technologically savvy, thank you so much. I do have a few questions that we would like to address. And most of these, they deal with the personal aspects of her life as opposed to the public accomplishments. These are questions that probably occurred to a number of people and have occurred to me. I would like to get your take on them. One was, what was your relationship with fdr and was it to any extent romantic . Very good question. Fdr was quite a ladies man and there were a number of ladies that fell for fdr over the years. Francis perkins relationship with him was somewhat different. When she met him they were both young, he was in new york senate, she was a young labor activist in new york. She remembered seeing him on the steps of a state of this building before he had become disabled, before he was handicapped. She noticed how he stood very erect, he was very handsome. He had a way of holding his head back like this and someone was asking questions, he was answering the questions like this. She said, you know, it seems like he just had his nose in the air. He seemed very snooty in those early years. She noticed there is a huge change that occurred to him after his terrible disability. Some people think it was polio, others think maybe it might have been some kind of other neurological disease that he had. There has been some dispute about that. The fact is that he had a very terrible disability. He found himself in a wheelchair most of his life. It was very humbling. He had to learn to accept was given to him. He had a very good education, he was enormously well connected. He had that same kind of emotional genius that Francis Perkins had. At some point the two of them came to recognize each other. Francis perkins went to work for the new York Industrial Commission with then governor al smith as the result of her very successful work in the wake of the fire. She was already experiencing all Workplace Safety and workplace management issues. Fdr became governor of new york in 1928. He asked Francis Perkins to become his industrial commissioner. She had already been in Public Office for four years when she joined fdr. She very quickly became a key confidant to fdr, he was someone that he could completely trust. Francis perkins was not entirely surprised when he selected her to become secretary of labor. She sort of knew it was already coming because they had already been working together. I would say she was enormously odd by him. She thought he had a genius almost an extra Sensory Perception in what he could learn and you based on knowledge, it wasnt always entirely presented him. She also had a way about him that he was like the older sister. She saw his frailties, she thought he was a little funny and she became quite good at manipulating him. They had a very interesting, almost a brother sister relationship. She often said that later one of the reasons he was so successful in working with him in the cabinet was that she had no political ambitions. She knew she could not go any further. Whereas all the other men in the cabinet were hoping that they would sunday become president. She was only looking out for fdrs interests. She was aware of his many romantic relationships, she did not approve of them. In a sense, she was his best friend. You mentioned al smith, am i making this up . Did she start to write a book about al smith . Yes, one of her goals at the end of her life was to write a biography of al smith. In some ways, she admired l smith, at least as much as she admired fdr. She felt else mitt had been treated cavalierly by the roosevelts group and she was very sorry that he fell away from them and actually ended up becoming the enemy of fdr. After she left the federal government, she hoped to write a biography of fdrs. She also thought she would live a very long time, she come very very longlived family. But she had been incredible stress for so many years of her life, her health started to fill. She was never able to finish it. A version of her book was published and using some of her notes, but no she was never able to complete that work. I can only imagine how interesting it might have been. How did she get along with eleanor . Eleanor, this is very interesting. Some people at the time assume that eleanor got Francis Perkins for job. Which was completely untrue. Francis perkins was an important public figure long before Eleanor Roosevelt went on to the public stage. It wasnt an uneasy relationship, eleanor had good reason to feel nervous of any woman in the presence of her husband. Women who came into fdrs orbit tended to fall in love with him. It created a lot of complications for the roosevelt family. Eleanor was a little over sub out. But she and Francis Perkins had very much in common, they shared similar values and they have the same goals. Gradually their relationship grew closer. Now initially, it wasnt that easy. Francis perkins was a College Graduate and Eleanor Roosevelt was not. That was a big gulf in those days. Their relationship to closer of the years as the time went on. They also, they actually Eleanor Francis and fdr formed a very effective trio together. Fdr would propose an idea, Francis Perkins would consider how to make it possible, and eleanor, through her enormously popular newspaper columns would explain in simple words why that was a useful program and why it was needed. She would be the Public Relations side of the story. The three of them were enormously effective together. But francis was still a little nervous around eleanor. Ellen could be tough. She cut people out when she decided she didnt like them anymore. Francis was a little nervous around eleanor. But at the end of their lives, they came together in a very intimate way and there is really beautiful picture from the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the fire. Eleanor roosevelt and Francis Perkins are sitting together on the podium, there is giving talks about what they remember about the trial of the file. The two women have their heads very close together as they talk about what they remember of those days. Eleanor its very clear from e picture that they came to love each other. Eleanor outlived her, right . Actually, Francis Perkins outlived eleanor just briefly. It was interesting, because Francis Perkins had some very interesting observations about eleanor and how she had managed to build herself up from a shy, insecure young woman to this amazingly popular public figure who was known and loved all over the world. Francis perkins told some young Amanda Cornell where she was teaching that it was amazing what eleanor had done in her life. But it was also amazing what eleanor result had done for herself. What about franciss husband . Who did she marry . Francis perkins married what i think was a young up a love match, a wealthy man from chicago who lived in a very rich neighborhood of chicago, and who came to new york as part of a pioneering effort to sort of cleanup new york city. And so, while Francis Perkins was very important in doing things on the workplace front, her husband, paul wilson, was important as a key official weather very exciting, young, kennedy ask mayoral administration. But when he was very young, and only his mid 30s, he started to develop very dramatic signs of bipolar disorder. He invested his money in a gold mine that failed. Francis perkins became the sole support of the family. She loved him very much, but he could never really be a partner again from that time. What about their daughter . They had one daughter, is that correct . They had a very lovely daughter, suzannah, artistically gifted and part of a very interesting, avantgarde community of artists in new york, but who developed bipolar disorder also and needed years of treatment and care. I have to ask you this, because ive heard this question raised before. Was she gay . I think thats a good question. I would say that a lot of it was that Francis Perkins loved different people at different points in her life. Theres no question that she was in love and loved her husband, paul was seen. But after he was institutionalized, because she was religious, there was no thought in her mind of divorce or separation from her marriage. So she found herself alone. This was a time when a lot of women or taking a bigger public role, and Francis Perkins lived with a series of different women and what seemed to have been relationships that were more than friendship. One was with Mary Harrison ramsey, the sister of avril harrison, one of the wealthiest women in america. One of the things that makes that relationship quite interesting is that mary hermon, as well, did the kind of socializing that helped her to get her point and her case across the powerful people who could make the things she wanted to happen. It was a relationship, but it was a relationship that was very deep, and a young man who knew both women while thought that Francis Perkins would surely leave public life when mary harmon died unexpectedly and horseback riding accident, after a horseback riding accident. So i guess what we can say is that Francis Perkins loved different people at different points and her life. Some of the more women. I ran across a term in your book that i dont think ive ever seen before. I think the term was boston marriage . Whats a boston marriage . Why is it called that . A boston marriages when i think we would call a partnership today, or a civil union. But before it was possible for people to may, a lot of intelligent new england women, a lot of women in general, found each other and formed a household together, and they liked to call it the boston marriage. Its not a commonly used term . Ive never heard it before. I think it was known, certainly known in boston. Known in boston. Okay. A couple last questions, more politically, involving policy. Is it true that she opposed the equal rights amendment . This is something thats made Francis Perkins a controversial person in the womens movement. Francis perkins fought very hard to get laws passed that provided protections for women and children. Back before they got the ban on child labor and a limitation on work hours, they were first able to get some state laws passed that provided for limitations on women and children based on the fact that their health and emotional and physical development required them to get a certain amount of trust. And so, they were able to get some protections and work our limitations for women and children that they had not been able to get from men but equal rights amendment would ban those kinds of differential laws swallow the equal rights amendment has much to commend it, Francis Perkins believed that it could end up inadvertently affecting some people who benefited from more protective legislation that women and children in need. And so, she was not a fan of the equal rights amendment. That has made her anathema to a generation of feminists who think that the equal rights amendment is desperately needed and remains needed. But her view was that women need the special situation around childbearing, caring for aging adults, puts responsibilities on women that most men dont have, and that women need protections and programs that may not equally applied to men. Right a last question, but also, has a hint of criticism in it. Some people have noted that farm workers and domestic servants were left out of the standards act. Many of those were obviously people of color. Thats right. My question is, why did Francis Perkins allow this to happen. When the act passed, fdr no longer had the majorities and the political control that he had earlier when he first became elected. His Court Packing plan had made him a lot of enemies. It made a lot of people skeptical about what he had in mind. So, the fair labor standards act was not at all it Francis Perkins envisioned. I mentioned earlier in my top that she didnt want it to just be a minimum wage. She wanted it to be a living wage. So from the beginning, the act compromises had to be made that she was sorry had to be made, but she still thought it was better to get protections for some then seek perfection and get perfect protections for non. As it turns out, i may not get these numbers exactly precise, the act covered about 8 million workers. That meant 8 million workers, for the first time, got limitations on their work hours, minimum wage, a ban on child labor happened at that time. But as you say, from workers and domestic servants were excluded. Most of them, many of them, people of color. So people have pointed to that and criticize to perkins for agreeing to it. But he was a great believe or that it was important to get what you could as best you could for as many people as you could, and go back and fix the situation later. And the fact is, the free labor standards act continues to have major holes after all these years. It seems a bit silly to blame Francis Perkins for what americans havent managed to fix since 1938. Reminiscent of roosevelts overall strategy. He was a bit of a private test, when you say . To get the best you can at the time and go back to try to make it better later. But do what you can, better to get something done nothing. Well, kirsten, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for having me, its been wonderful. Good night to everybody. American history tv, saturdays on cspan two. Exploring the people and events that tell the american story. A 10 am eastern, grammy award winner and public enemy cofounder, check the, talks about the music of social change, and his songs that shook the planet will feature a profile of former first lady pat nixon, lets galarza looking at her media image, a person to pe
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