The Woman Behind The New Deal (1933) w/ Jenny Kaplan
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s March 3rd. This day in 1933, Frances Perkins is appointed Secretary of Labor, the first woman to hold a cabinet position.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Jenny Kaplan of Womanica to discuss Perkins’ role inside the FDR administration, the way she navigated both her person and professional worlds — and whether Perkins was the real architect of the New Deal.
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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro and Audrey Mardavich, Executive Producers at Radiotopia
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from |
| 0:06.4 | Radiotopia my name is Jody Avergan. This day March 3rd, 1933, Francis Perkins becomes the U.S. Secretary of Labor, a position |
| 0:17.2 | she would hold for 12 years, one of only two cabinet members actually who would serve |
| 0:20.7 | under FDR for his entire presidency. This was the start of a remarkable career or a sort of pinnacle of a remarkable career and of course a first. Perkins was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet and as we'll get into it, she |
| 0:35.5 | navigated her firstness in really fascinating ways, playing both the political and |
| 0:40.8 | the social gender dynamics game throughout her career. |
| 0:44.0 | One tidbit early in her professional life Perkins had begun taking |
| 0:48.0 | notes on male colleagues and she filed them in a large red envelope labeled |
| 0:52.0 | this was the name of the envelope, notes on the male mind, |
| 0:55.9 | which is just amazing. |
| 0:58.4 | So here to talk about Francis Perkins are, as always, Nicole Hemmer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of |
| 1:03.4 | Wellesley hello there. Hello Jody. Hey there. And our special guest |
| 1:08.0 | Jenny Kaplan co-founder and CEO of Wonder Media Network and host of the |
| 1:12.1 | excellent Womannica podcast. |
| 1:14.0 | Jenny, thank you for doing this. |
| 1:16.0 | We've been wanting to have you on the show for a while. |
| 1:18.0 | Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited. |
| 1:20.0 | What a lady to talk about? |
| 1:21.0 | I know. |
| 1:22.0 | So do any of you have a red envelope labeled |
| 1:24.2 | notes on the mail mine? I mean I'm starting one right now. |
| 1:27.2 | I know right? Not yet. You're going to be the first subject Jody. |
... |
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