Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Bird as California's Secretary of Agriculture and Services, making her the first woman to serve in a California governor's cabinet.
On March 26, 1975, newly elected Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. appointed Rose Bird as California's Secretary of Agriculture and Services, making her the first woman ever to serve in a California governor's cabinet. This appointment was groundbreaking at a time when women were almost entirely excluded from the highest levels of state government leadership.
In this role, Bird oversaw agricultural labor relations during a turbulent period marked by intense conflict between growers and farmworkers, including disputes involving the United Farm Workers union led by Cesar Chavez. She played an instrumental role in drafting and shepherding the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, a landmark law that extended collective bargaining rights to farmworkers for the first time in the state's history.
Her cabinet appointment was a significant milestone for women's representation in California politics and previewed her subsequent, even more historic appointment to the state's highest court. It demonstrated Governor Brown's willingness to place women in unprecedented positions of power, and it gave Bird visibility and experience that would shape her judicial career. Her work on labor policy also foreshadowed the pro-labor, pro-worker sensibilities that would characterize her tenure on the California Supreme Court.