President Joe Biden plans to designate a new national monument in Newcastle, Maine, honoring Frances Perkins, who was the country's first female cabinet secretary.
Perkins was a key architect of some of nation's most sweeping labor laws and reforms. During her 12 years as Franklin D. Roosevelt's labor secretary, Perkins led the push to standardize the 40-hour work week, to ban child labor and to create a federal minimum wage. She is also credited with helping to establish Social Security.
According to the Biden administration, the president plans to designate the historic Newcastle farm as a national monument during a ceremony at the Labor Department headquarters in Washington on Monday. The homestead is currently owned by the nonprofit Frances Perkins Center.
