A Matter of Simple Justice. Lee Stout
Nixon and Virginia Knauer
13. Virginia Knauer at a 1972 meeting of the Cost of Living Council
16. Meeting of the Citizens’ Advisory Council on the Status of Women
17. Dr. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
18. Melvin R. Laird
19. Virginia Allan
21. Rita Hauser
22. Barbara Hackman, Penn State class of 1962
23. Pat Hitt meeting with the president
24. Robert Finch
25. President Nixon with Helen Delich Bentley
26. Representative Catherine May Bedell with Richard Nixon
27. The president with aides Donald Rumsfeld, Leonard Garment, and Charles B. Wilkinson
28. Connie Stuart
29. Mrs. Nixon at the fiftieth anniversary of the Women’s Bureau
30. Ethel Bent Walsh with colleagues from the Small Business Administration
31. Bob Haldeman
32. President Richard Nixon
33. Bob Finch takes the oath of office as counselor to the president
34. The president meets with Helen Delich Bentley and other appointees
35. Rose Mary Woods
36. Donald Rumsfeld
37. Carol Marshall
38. The president greets Barbara Franklin
39. Barbara Franklin at her first press briefing
40. Barbara Franklin fields questions
41. Ann Uccello meets with President Nixon
42. Bob Finch
43. The president’s directive of April 21, 1971
44. The president with Jayne Spain and Pat Hitt
45. President Nixon with Jayne Spain, announcing appointments for women
46. Judy Cole
47. Virginia Knauer
48. Barbara Franklin played an important role in outreach to women’s organizations
49. Al Kaupinen
50. Pendleton James
51. Charls E. Walker
52. Barbara Franklin speaks with representatives of Federally Employed Women
53. Marina Whitman is sworn in as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers
54. Romana Bañuelos
55. Barbara Franklin at her desk
56. First Lady Pat Nixon
57. President Nixon speaking to the National Federation of Republican Women
58. The president delivers the 1972 State of the Union Address
59. Generals Anna Hayes, Mildred Inez C. Bailey, Elizabeth Hoisington, and Jeanne Holm
60. Barbara Franklin in a White House portrait
61. Julie and Tricia Nixon with Catherine Bedell
62. Dixy Lee Ray
63. Barbara Franklin with women appointees
64. Ethel Bent Walsh
65. Frank Herringer
66. Anne Armstrong
67. Connie Newman
68. Nola Smith with Anne Armstrong and the president
69. Jeanne Holm, special assistant on women for President Ford
70. Representatives Martha Griffiths and Catherine Bedell with Generals Anna Hayes and Elizabeth Hoisington
71. Margita White
72. Pat Hitt in her campaign office
73. Marina Whitman
74. Elizabeth Hanford Dole
75. Paula Tennant
76. Bret Sturtevant and Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans
77. Carla A. Hills
78. Bobbie Kilberg and Sallyanne Payton meeting with Barbara Franklin
79. Betty Murphy
80. Marina Whitman with President Nixon and George Shultz
81. Ruth Davis
82. Jeanne Holm
83. Ann McLaughlin Korologos
84. Cynthia H. Hall
85. Carol Marshall meets with the president
86. Virginia H. Knauer
87. Pat Hutar and her husband, Laddie Hutar
88. Patricia Hitt
89. Virginia Allan with William Rogers
90. Julie Nixon Eisenhower
91. Anne Armstrong with President and Mrs. Ford and Henry Kissinger
92. Marguerite Rawalt greets Barbara Franklin
93. Barbara Franklin is sworn in as secretary of commerce
94. Barbara Hackman Franklin
95. Reunion of “A Few Good Women”
International Women’s Day is March 8. It’s meant to celebrate the social, political, cultural, and economic achievements of women around the world, which are innumerable. But it’s also a day when I think about the challenges women continue to face. Each year, in my reporting at CNBC, I tackle different issues on International Women’s Day, and in 2019, I spent weeks reporting on board representation of the Russell 3000—the 3000 biggest publicly traded companies based in the United States. Parity by sex is a rarity. I was simply looking at the most baseline question: Do these companies have a single woman on their boards of directors?
We found that a whopping 457 of the 3000 companies had no female representation on their boards. Even well-known brands that often cater to female shoppers had no female representation on their boards.
The explanations are numerous, and the reasons aren’t often satisfying. But one thing’s for sure. Boards are, at the risk of sounding too colloquial, the usual suspects. Many retired executives take a board seat, then take on another, and their inclusion on a third, fourth, and seventh board becomes a self-perpetuating reality.