Becoming Madame Secretary

 I took six and a half hours to read Becoming Madame Secretary by Stephanie Dray. This is a historical fiction novel about a pioneering wonder woman who started the social security program with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Frances Perkins arrived in New York at the turn on the century. She worked with children in Hell's Kitchen. She didn't always follow the rules. She wasn't supposed to give her own lunch away to a starving family but she did. She witnessed the fire at the shirtwaist factory and saw the girls tumbling out of the windows to their death because the factory owner locked the exit doors. That made a huge impact on her. She fought to make factories safer. She wanted to get rid of child labor. She wanted the work week shortened to 54 hours. While in New York she became friends with millionaire socialite Mary Harrison Rumsey and upcoming author Sinclair Lewis. She meets a man called Paul Wilson who is also a reformer. They fall in love and marry. Eventually they have a child together. She meets FDR and she thinks he is rude and using his good looks to get votes. At that time it is true. Later, when her husband is hospitalized for manic depression, she meets Eleanor Roosevelt and learns FDR contracted polio and may die. Later FDR asks her to be his Secretary of Labor. This is the first time a woman has been appointed to a secretarial office. She served during his four terms in office and has held that job longer than anyone else. I really enjoyed learning about Frances Perkins. I think the author did a great job telling her story.