Nixon administration In 1971, while at the First National City Bank, Franklin was recruited by President
Richard Nixon to bring more qualified women into high-level policy-making government positions. Her appointment was part of a multi-pronged initiative by the Nixon administration following a press conference on February 6, 1969. During this press conference,
Vera Glaser, a reporter for the
North American Newspaper Alliance, asked President Nixon, In February 1971, Nixon gave
Fred Malek, head of Presidential Personnel and a former classmate of Franklin's at Harvard Business School, the task of hiring a woman who would spearhead the effort to recruit other women for policy-making government jobs. Malek asked Franklin to be this recruiter, and on April 12, 1971, Franklin began her position for this presidential initiative. An official press release from the White House announced Franklin on April 22, 1971, as a "Staff Assistant to the President for Executive Manpower" – a title that was later changed to "Staff Assistant to the President" after her first press conference, wherein the press questioned how she could recruit women with the word
manpower in her title. Following the release of this memorandum, Franklin was charged with monitoring the implementation progress of each department's action plans. By April 1972, along with the other presidential initiatives, Franklin's efforts led to the tripling of women placed into policy-making positions, from 36 to 105 women in this first year alone. By May 1973, this number further increased to 130 women, and Franklin had created a talent bank of 1,000 qualified women for future openings. More than half of these policy-making positions to which women were appointed during this time were previously held only by men. Among them were
Cynthia Holcomb Hall, judge on the
United States Tax Court;
Marina von Neumann Whitman, the first woman on the president's
Council of Economic Advisers; Romana Banuelos, the first Hispanic to be U.S. treasurer;
Betty Southard Murphy, general counsel of the
National Labor Relations Board; and
Dixy Lee Ray, the first and only woman to chair the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The number of women appointed to boards and commissions increased as well, from over 250 in the first year, to 339 women by the end of May 1973. It was during this time that the first women became generals and admirals in the U.S. Armed Forces. In 1994, Franklin donated her governmental papers to the Penn State University Archives. Stout was cataloging Franklin's papers when he became interested in those that detailed her service to recruit women in the Nixon administration. He called Franklin and suggested an
oral history project to preserve the memories of the men and women involved in this presidential initiative. In 1997, the "A Few Good Women" oral history project was created with an advisory board chaired by Franklin and with a cooperative relationship with the Penn State University Libraries. Initially, the board had a list of twelve women appointees from the Nixon administration to be interviewed, including Margita White,
Constance B. Newman, and
Helen Delich Bentley, former Congresswoman and Chair of the
Federal Maritime Commission. The list eventually expanded to include nearly 50 interviews currently housed in the Special Collections Library at Penn State University.
A Matter of Simple Justice: The Untold Story of Barbara Hackman Franklin and A Few Good Women is based on the "A Few Good Women" oral history project. In a two-part format, the book first focuses on the historical narrative of the Nixon administration's efforts to bring women into high-level government positions, Franklin's specific efforts, and the results of this period. In the second part of the book, Stout highlights the personal stories of many of the other interviewees from this project, such as Ambassador
Anne Armstrong, Senator
Elizabeth Dole, Judge
Cynthia Hall, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Carla Hills. Interviewees talk about early influences, breaking down barriers, the impact on family, the role of networking, and the challenge of gaining entry into the legal profession. The "A Few Good Women" project has received major funding from the Aetna Foundation, which has also provided grants for the "A Few Good Women" teaching aids project, designed by Penn State University Libraries staff. The teaching aids are designed to provide oral histories, biographies, audio segments, images, and digitized historical documents of the "A Few Good Women" collection as a curriculum for grades 6–12 students.
Consumer Product Safety Commission Franklin's accomplishments as a staff assistant to President Nixon led to her nomination by Nixon as one of the first of five original commissioners of the
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). She was sworn in on May 14, 1973, for a term of seven years. She served under presidents Nixon,
Gerald Ford, and
Jimmy Carter. On June 13, 1973, she was elected and served as the first Vice Chair of the CPSC until 1974. She served again as the Vice Chair from 1977 to 1978. During these years, Franklin concentrated on improving children's safety and pioneering cost/benefit analysis. Her letters to President Carter and her speeches led to that administration's creation of the United States Regulatory Council to coordinate the numerous agencies engaged in research or regulation of carcinogens, such as the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Part-time presidential appointments Before she was appointed Secretary of Commerce, Franklin held several part-time presidential appointment positions, including her membership of the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (1982–86; 89–91) by appointment of presidents
Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. She chaired the Task Force of Tax Reform (1985–86) and was a member of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (1991). She was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as an Alternative Representative & Public Delegate,
UN General Assembly, 44th Session (1989–90). This nomination was approved by the
United States Senate, and shortly thereafter, she was sworn in on February 27, 1992, which made Franklin the highest-ranking woman in the George H.W. Bush administration and the 13th woman to serve in the
US Cabinet. As Secretary of Commerce, she achieved a major goal: increasing American exports, most notably with China, Russia, Japan, and Mexico. She led a presidential mission to China in December 1992 to normalize commercial relations between the United States and China. In China, she and her counterpart, Minister
Li Lanqing, reconvened the Seventh Session of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). The JCCT had been moribund since the events at
Tiananmen Square in June 1989, when the U.S. placed a sanction on China banning high-level government-to-government contact. Her mission lifted that sanction and brought back $1 billion in new contracts for American companies. This mission gave a "green light" to U.S. companies interested in business opportunities in China, and trade with China grew dramatically in the ensuing years, as did U.S. investment in China. In January 1993, Franklin's appointment as Commerce Secretary ended with the inauguration of
Bill Clinton to the presidency. ==Political activity==