A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins

PENNY COLMAN is the author of many award-winning books, including Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II and Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference. She is a distinguished lecturer at Queens College, the City University of New York.

An informative, inspiring, and strongly sympathetic biography of a major feminist hero of the 20's, 30's, and 40's, especially effective in presenting Perkins's achievements in their historical context. As a young social worker, Perkins developed expertise on the subject of workers' living and job conditions, taking on both state and federal governments with regard to labor law. Her competence and extraordinary energy brought her to the attention of powerful political leaders; as Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, she was the first woman ever appointed to a president's cabinet. At each juncture of Perkins's life, Colman skillfully interweaves social trends and political developments with glimpses of her family and mentors. Feminist solidarity is an implicit message here, while the era's social consciousness is an even stronger theme. Though she doesn't use footnotes, Colman quotes extensively from Perkins' own writings (particularly letters to her college alumnae association), and lists numerous contemporary accounts in a bibliography. A well-detailed life of an important figure. Chronology; bibliography; index not seen. (Biography. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.