Frances Perkins in the context of "Harold L. Ickes"

The Social Security Act of 1935 is a law enacted by the 74th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. The law created the Social Security program as well as insurance against unemployment. The law was part of Roosevelt's New Deal domestic program.

By 1930, the United States was one of the few industrialized countries without any national social security system. Amid the Great Depression, the physician Francis Townsend galvanized support behind a proposal to issue direct payments to older people. Responding to that movement, Roosevelt organized a committee led by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins to develop a major social welfare program proposal. Roosevelt presented the plan in early 1935 and signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935. The Supreme Court upheld the act in two major cases decided in 1937.

The Federal Emergency Relief Association (FERA) Camps, also called She-She-She Camps, were camps established in the United States to aid unemployed women by providing jobs and training. The camps were organized by Eleanor Roosevelt as a woman-focused counterpart to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) programs which catered solely to unemployed men. Roosevelt found that the men-only focus of the CCC program left out young women who were willing to work in conservation and forestry and were prepared to spend the six-month program duration living away from family and close support. Therefore, she lobbied for a sister organization to the CCC that would cater to young women. Roosevelt proposed that this program would consist of camps for jobless women and residential worker schools. The FERA camps, referred to as She-She-She camps by certain detractors, were funded by presidential order in 1933. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins championed one such camp after Roosevelt held a White House Conference for Unemployed Women on April 30, 1934, and subsequently Roosevelt's concept of a nationwide jobless women's camp was achieved. While the public largely supported New Deal programs such as the CCC, FERA camps reached a maximum of a little over 5,000 women annually by 1936, and overall served 8,500 as a result of Roosevelt's support. This compares to more than 3 million men who participated in the CCC.