With historian H.W. Brands, author Kirstin Downey, and Erine Gray as our guides - and with Archival Audio of Frances Perkins herself - we go back to the fateful day in March 1911 when thirty-one-year-old Frances Perkins happened to witness the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Just as Erine Gray’s conversion experience in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, inspired him to focus on public policy, Frances Perkins’s experience on that day inspired her to work toward prototypical safety net elements like workplace safety codes and fire regulations.

From there, considering the complex context of life in America in the early 20th Century, we follow Frances Perkins’ life and work all the way through her transformational success in building compassionate structures into the American system. To name a few things for which we have Frances Perkins to thank, consider Social Security, unemployment insurance, the 40-hour workweek, the minimum wage, overtime pay, Federal Housing assistance which helps people buy houses with low down payments, the National Labor Relations Act which gave workers the right to organize, oh and also public works projects like the Lincoln Tunnel, the highway through the Florida Keys, and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Woman Behind The New Deal