WOMEN IN HISTORY: Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Publication March 12, 2024-Berkley Publishing-528p

Book Summary

American heroine Frances Perkins

Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.

When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.

But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.

Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

This is a compelling behind the scenes look at the life of Frances Perkins on her way to becoming the first female presidential cabinet member serving as Secretary of Labor through all four of FDR’s history making terms as president of the United States. A chance meeting of FDR at an afternoon society tea-dance is the turning point in Perkins’ career. Stephanie Dray’s impeccably researched novel keeps the reader’s focus on work-life balance as Frances juggles her burgeoning social and political activities with her family life.

I was enthralled with Frances Perkins’ determination and resolve to bring the horrid, unsafe working conditions in factories to the government’s attention and her tireless work to pass legislation calling for vast improvement in safety conditions and limiting work weeks to fifty-four hours. Dray’s unforgettable details and descriptions of a monumental time in U.S. history include tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, the Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Great Depression, FDR’s rise in the Democratic Party, Women’s Suffrage, and World War 11. I was most impressed with the courage and fortitude shown by Frances Perkins as she forged her place in history as a woman with a brilliant mind who became advisor, and confidant to our 32^nd president. Her service to the U. S. is most evident in the New Deal and the Social Security Act which she was instrumental in convincing Congress to implement.  

Stephanie Dray’s Becoming Madam Secretary is a terrific force, very much like Frances Perkins and her infamous tricorn hat.

The Author’s Note is filled with pages and pages of delicious details and facts that are not included in the novel. Stephanie poured over the 5000 page transcript of Frances Perkins’ oral history, newspaper headlines, appointment books and even interviewed her grandson! The novel left me so impressed and thirsting for even more background and news that I watched FDR, a documentary in three episodes. Yes, Frances Perkins is right there in the photographs!