On March 4, 1933,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated president for the first time. This was the last inauguration to occur this late.
Also today, Frances Perkins began her time in office as the Secretary of Labor. She served all the way through mid-1945.
Life and career before the cabinet position
She achieved statewide prominence as head of the New York Consumers League in 1910 and lobbied with vigor for better working hours and conditions. Perkins also taught as a professor of sociology at Adelphi College. The next year, she witnessed the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a pivotal event in her life. It was because of this event that Frances Perkins would leave her office at the New York Consumers League and become the executive secretary for the Committee on Safety of the City of New York.
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Cabinet career
In 1933, Roosevelt appointed Perkins as Secretary of the Department of Labor, a position she held for twelve years, longer than any other Secretary of Labor. She became the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States and thus, became the first woman to enter the presidential line of succession.