Frances Perkins, who served as secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, will be inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame at the University of Maine at Augusta on March 21, according to the Frances Perkins Center in Newcastle.
Perkins is best known as the architect of Social Security, unemployment insurance, minimum wage laws and worker safety protections. Although she was born and raised in Massachusetts, she spent childhood summers in Maine, where her family’s homestead was designated a national monument in 2024.
She was the first woman to serve in the Cabinet of a U.S. president.
The Maine Women’s Hall of Fame was established in 1990 by the Business and Professional Women/Maine Futurama Foundation to honor individuals whose achievements have expanded opportunities for Maine women and left a lasting impact.
Inductees are selected by an independent panel and a permanent gallery of their portraits is housed at the Bennett D. Katz Library at UMA.
Perkins will be inducted along with Dr. Alane O’Connor, director of perinatal addiction medicine at Maine Medical Center.
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