(Written by Vice President of Board Operations, Jane von Kaenel – December 30, 2024) President Jimmy Carter, who died yesterday at 100, is being praised for his work on human rights, the Camp David Accords, his energy policies, opening diplomatic relations with China but one place Carter made history was appointing women. He included women in a way presidents had never included them before. Jimmy Carter changed the world for women.
NWPC Vice President of Operations, Jane von Kaenel with First Lady Rosalynn Carter
A pioneer, Carter appointed more women than all previous presidents put together. He appointed the 4th, 5th and 6th women ever to serve as cabinet secretaries: Patricia Roberts Harris as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Juanita Kreps as Commerce Secretary, and Shirley Hufstedler to run the Education Department.
Barbara Blum, Senior woman on the Carter transition team, detailed how Carter had a mandate to seek out women and minorities to serve in his administration; this would build a “base” for future undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and deputy assistant secretaries from which women members could be selected in future administrations.
In the White House, President Jimmy Carter appointed 41 female judges to the federal judiciary, more than all previous presidents combined.
First Lady Rosalynn Carter strongly supported the Equal Rights Amendment, working with other First Ladies- Betty Ford and Pat Nixon. It passed Congress in 1972 and when the original seven-year window for ratification was nearing its end, Carter acted. He lobbied Congress to extend the resolution deadline which they passed in 1978 and President Carter signed it giving supporters another three years to win ratification for the last three states needed to make ERA part of the constitution.
Perhaps President Carter’s relationship with his wife Rosalynn is where one finds the roots of Carter’s deep commitment to promoting women in his administration. In his mind, Rosalynn was his equal. She was key in his early campaigns for state senate and governor and she was pivotal in his campaign for President when less than one percent of Americans had heard of him. She campaigned tirelessly in every state primary to defeat the sixteen other Democrats running for the nomination in 1976.
After Carter’s election, he surprised, perhaps shocked the nation by having Rosalynn sit in on his Cabinet meetings. A First Lady had never before attended these meetings. When asked why, he explained, Rosalynn and I have always discussed everything, if she was there in the room with me, she’d hear the discussion so I wouldn’t have to report what my cabinet secretaries and I discussed. Numerous presidential couples talked with one another but this had always been in private. With Rosalynn publicly attending cabinet meetings, President Jimmy Carter forever changed the role of the First Lady.
After serving as a Missouri State Press Secretary in the 1976 campaign, I moved to Washington D.C. where I was a Congressional press secretary for a year. When the Office of Political Liaison and Personnel was formed, I got the chance of a lifetime and worked there for the last three years of Carter’s Presidency.
###
The National Women’s Political Caucus, founded in 1971, is the oldest national, multi-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to identifying, recruiting, training, electing, and supporting pro-choice women candidates for elected and appointed office.
