The door might not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time, and I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats.

It was because of this event that Frances Perkins would leave her office at the New York Consumers League and become the executive secretary for the Committee on Safety of the City of New York. The couple had a daughter Susanna. During this time Perkins also taught as a professor of sociology at Adelphi College.

She formed governmental policy for working with labor unions and helped to alleviate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service Perkins resisted having American women be drafted to serve the military in World War II so that they could enter the civilian workforce in greatly expanded numbers. As a loyal supporter of her friend Franklin D. With the Social Security Act Frances Perkins establiFrances Perkinsd unemployment benefits pensions for the many uncovered elderly Americans and welfare for the poorest Americans.