Frances Perkins: “City Diets and Democracy”

Frances Perkins dramatically changed the role of the Department of Labor during her tenure as secretary of labor under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. From her work in the settlement house movement to her pioneering service as the first woman cabinet member, she championed the interests of working Americans through public speeches, legislative action, and deft political negotiations. During her tenure with the Labor Department, she championed the minimum wage, the right to collectively organize, protection from occupational diseases and hazards, a system of unemployment assistance and old-age pension, control over work hours, universal access to affordable healthy food, and the eradication of child labor. In 1941, Perkins submitted an article, “City Diets and Democracy,” to the journal Survey Graphic, in which she called for reform of the American diet and pointed to the economic conditions that prevented many Americans from receiving adequate nutrition.