Frances Perkins: The Force behind Social Security and for the Way Life Should Be

Frances Perkins (1880-1965) was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. The force behind Social Security and lasting components of US social policy created during the New Deal, she returned to her ancestral homestead in Maine every year of her life and considered it her true home, although her responsibilities never allowed her to live there full time. She found respite at this modest saltwater farm where generations of her family lived and worked from the mid 18th century to 2020.

Speakers will address Perkins' life as social worker, activist, government official, teacher, and wife and mother of people with mental illness at a time when such conditions were stigmatized and not treatable.