PROGRAM

To mark Women’s History Month at Roosevelt House, please join us—together with the Frances Perkins Center—for a conversation with bestselling author Stephanie Dray, whose new historical novel delivers a stirring portrait of the first woman to ever serve in a presidential cabinet, Frances Perkins. Thoroughly researched and poignantly written, Becoming Madam Secretary brings Perkins vividly to life and tells the captivating, dramatic tale of how she became FDR’s Secretary of Labor, a role in which she served from 1933 to 1945. The author will be in conversation with Giovanna Gray Lockhart, Executive Director of the Frances Perkins Center—which, just last December, was recognized by President Joe Biden as a national monument. A driving force behind the New Deal, Perkins is credited with formulating policies that helped to create the middle class and lift the country out of the Great Depression.

As the novel shows, even as Perkins ascends in a political world dominated by men to become one of FDR’s most trusted lieutenants, Perkins struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. When 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 help rescue the nation from economic despair.

Among the many richly depicted, historic moments from throughout Perkins’ extraordinary life and career is an opening scene in which, on a cold February night in 1933, she arrives at the building that would become Roosevelt House for a “job interview” with President-Elect Roosevelt. Readers are offered a front row seat as Perkins reluctantly accepts her appointment as Secretary of Labor, but only on the condition that FDR agree to support a few new economic initiatives—including minimum wage, child labor laws, and the program that would become social security.

Roosevelt House rarely showcases historical fiction, but this is a striking portrayal of one of the key figures of the New Deal—whose federal career literally began on this spot.

Stephanie Dray is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of historical women’s fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into many languages and regularly tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. She is the author, with Laura Kamoie, of America’s First Daughter, a novel about Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter; My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, also with Kamoie, about Alexander Hamilton’s wife; The Women of Chateau Lafayette, based on the true story of a castle in France and the women who lived there; and Lily of the Nile, about the daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.

Giovanna Gray Lockhart joined the Frances Perkins Center in 2023. She led the efforts to designate the Frances Perkins National Monument, signed into law by President Biden on December 16, 2024. A leading advocate for gender equity, Lockhart was a leader on the federal paid family leave movement, has published op-eds in various national publications, and served as Washington editor of Glamour. In addition to national nonprofit leadership, her career includes government service as an advisor to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.