Becoming Madam Secretary
Becoming Madam Secretary, by Stephanie Dray (New York: Berkley, 2024)
This historical novel highlights the remarkable life of Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member as Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor – an extraordinary accomplishment for a woman in male-dominated 1930’s America.
Perkins grew up in New England and after obtaining advanced degrees in science, economics and sociology, moved to New York City where she joined organizations promoting the improvement of the lives of workers, especially women, and humane living conditions in tenement housing.
She became an advisor to New York Governors Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt, and when Roosevelt became U.S. president in 1932, was appointed to his Cabinet.
In a stunning coincidence, she was having lunch in Greenwich Village in 1911 and witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, observing many female sweatshop workers fall or jump to their deaths. The lack of adequate fire escapes, the factory owners’ locking exit doors and the tragic failure of the Fire Department’s ladders to reach the high floors of the factory motivated Perkins to fight for legislation ensuring fire safety in factories and better working conditions.
Her great concern for the elderly, the jobless and hard-working people left in dire poverty due to the Depression caused her to develop and strongly advocate such momentous programs as Social Security, the social safety-net that continues today, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. She also strenuously sought to end child labor, supported women’s right to vote and fought with the State Department over its refusal to expand immigration quotas to admit European Jews escaping Hitler’s grasp.
Perkins was a role model and an innovative thinker who persevered against those who believed, that, as a woman, she could not serve in important government positions or promote the vital programs she advanced.
Her great intellect, strength of her convictions, drive and determination to secure the passage of truly life-saving programs served her well. Governors Smith and Roosevelt immediately recognized her intelligence, creativeness and hard work and appointed her to their inner circle at a time when America did not welcome women in high places. She succeeded, and indeed rose to greatness, in a 1930’s America which did not recognize that a woman could be so accomplished.
Her success came at a time of great personal distress. Her husband and daughter both suffered from mental illness. She was constantly torn between her public life – her devotion to President Roosevelt and the New Deal which involved traveling to Washington, sometimes at a moment’s notice – and her need to be with her family. Nevertheless her service to America and the causes she fought for took priority and we all benefited from that.
As an historical novel, and since Perkins left no official memoir and few personal papers, the author admittedly supplies an entertaining and perfectly reasonable narrative of her conversations with Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and friends Sinclair Lewis and socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey.
Nevertheless, the factual basis of the book, the historic passage of social-welfare laws through Perkins’ dedication and resolve and President Roosevelt’s persistence, is based on undisputed fact. The book should be of interest to those interested in an historical review of the events surrounding the historic passage of laws critical to the lives of Americans as they are presented in an informative, narrative style highlighting the author’s perception of the interesting interrelationships between the movers of those critical events.
Stephanie Dray, a New York Times bestselling author, has written numerous works of historical fiction based on women’s lives, including Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Alexander Hamilton’s wife and Cleopatra’s daughter.
This is an excellent book and an entertaining and factually impressive work.
Reviewed by Steven Davis, a member of the Executive Board of the NY Labor History Association and a retired Administrative Law Judge of the NLRB.