he Honorable Barbara Hackman Franklin
OverviewBarbara Franklin's role in the Nixon White House from 1971 to 1973 is the keystone for advancing women into leadership positions in government and also for this oral history project. After graduation from Penn State in 1962, she became one of the first women to receive an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Business School in 1964. With path-breaking experiences in business, she accepted a position as Staff Assistant to President Richard M. Nixon in 1971 with the mission to recruit talented women into leadership positions in the federal government. After great success she was nominated and confirmed as Commissioner and Vice Chairman of the newly established Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1973. After six years of service, she returned to business, founding a consulting firm and becoming a director on a number of corporate boards, a senior fellow of the Wharton School of Business, and director of the Wharton Government and Business Program at the University of Pennyslvania, and at various times as a member of the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy Negotiations, as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1992-93, she served as the 29th Secretary of Commerce in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. Returning to the private sector, she is now President and Chief Executive Officer of Barbara Franklin Enterprises, a consulting and investment firm. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, and the Distinguished Alumni award from Penn State.
About the Transcript
Ranging from the influences of her parents and experiences in
college and M.B.A. program, Barbara Franklin's interview covers
her career in considerable depth in business, the White House,
the Consumer Product Safety Commission, her return to the business
world, and service as Secretary of Commerce. Through these
experiences we can follow her evolving ideas and the development
and success of the program to recruit women into leadership
and middle management positions in the federal government.
Equally interesting are her reflections on the problems women
faced in this effort, the largely overlooked successful effort
to advance women's equality initiated by the Nixon Administration,
and the impact of this effort on the women's movement in America.
Many of the other women interviewed in this project are mentioned
here and placed in context.
