A Matter of Simple Justice

Lee Stout, former president of the Society of American Archivists, recounts the Nixon administration’s success in promoting women to executive positions in the federal government. The administration’s initiative was led by Barbara Hackman Franklin, staff assistant to President Nixon, who was hired in 1971 to enlist female candidates to fill high-level positions. Mr. Stout reports that during Ms. Franklin’s tenure she introduced over one-hundred women to executive jobs in the federal government, close to four times more than any prior administration. Lee Stout spoke on a panel with former Commerce Secretary Barbara Hackman Franklin and former Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley about the challenges they and other women faced then and how their advances shaped opportunities for later generations. The event was moderated by Judy Woodruff at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The panelists also responded to questions from members of the audience. close