Biden to Establish National Monument for 1st Female Cabinet Secretary

President Joe Biden speaks in Washington on April 10, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation on Dec. 16 establishing a monument for Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet secretary, the White House said on Monday.

The monument to Perkins, who served as the U.S. labor secretary from 1933 to 1945 and died in 1965, will be in Newcastle, Maine, according to the White House.

Biden will sign the proclamation during a visit to the Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building in Washington.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt made Perkins the labor secretary the same year he entered office, and kept her in place until he died in 1945. Roosevelt is the only person in American history to serve as president for more than two terms. Perkins has been credited with helping Roosevelt enact sweeping reform, including laws creating a minimum wage and Social Security.

“I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen,” Perkins said at one point.

The White House said in a fact sheet that Perkins told Roosevelt that if she accepted the position of labor secretary, “she intended to execute an ambitious plan to protect American workers.” The fact sheet stated that during her 12 years as secretary of labor, “Perkins accomplished nearly everything on her list and laid the groundwork for the labor policy and social safety net that we continue to build on today.”

The new monument boundary will cover an area including the 57-acre Frances Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark site in Newcastle, where she spent many childhood summers and took breaks as an adult. The site includes the family home, a barn, and gardens.

Establishing the new monument is part of Biden’s vow to honor the role of women in history.

“Women and girls of all backgrounds have shaped our country’s history, from the ongoing fight for justice and equality to cutting-edge scientific advancements and artistic achievements. Yet these contributions have often been overlooked,” he wrote in a previous executive order. “We must do more to recognize the role of women and girls in America’s story, including through the Federal Government’s recognition and interpretation of historic and cultural sites.”

The federal government on Monday also said it was establishing five new historic landmarks, including the Charleston Cigar Factory, also known as the American Cigar Company Building, in Charleston, South Carolina, where cigar factory workers went on strike in 1945 to advocate for improved pay and working conditions.