Biden to establish monument honoring first female presidential Cabinet member

President Biden on Monday will sign a proclamation to establish a national monument honoring Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet and the nation’s longest-serving labor secretary.

Mr. Biden will make the announcement and sign the percolation during a visit to the Labor Department. The monument will be built in New Castle, Maine.

“We must all remember that the gains we enjoy today were not fits, they were hard-fought victories because Frances Perkins dared to believe that workers should thrive and not just survive,” said acting Labor Secretary Julie Su.

Ms. Perkins served under President Franklin Roosevelt and helped implement many of his New Deal policies, including the creation of Social Security, the fight for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively, the establishment of the minimum wage, the implementation of overtime pay, the prohibition of child labor and the establishment of unemployment insurance, according to a White House fact sheet.

She also created the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that provided conservation and development jobs for manual laborers on government-owned rural land, the White House said.

Mr. Biden will be joined at the signing by Ms. Su and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, as well as labor and women’s rights leaders.

The move comes as Mr. Biden nears the end of his presidency and he’s focused on cementing his legacy as a champion of union and labor rights. He frequently brags that he’s the most pro-union president in modern history.

Mrs. Perkins’ monument will be in Newcastle because her family had deep roots in the town, where she was buried after her death in 1965. The monument would be established on her family homestead and managed by the National Park Service.

The Perkins Family Home, built in 1837 and known as the “Brick House,” will be the centerpiece of the new monument, according to the White House.

“Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2014, the Perkins Homestead is a 57-acre property along the Damariscotta River that supported the family for generations,” the White House said. “Visitors experience the same landscape, garden paths and wooded walking trails that were a lifelong source of inspiration and rejuvenation for Perkins.”