1974 Richard Nixon - Appoints Anne Armstrong, first woman as Counselor to the President

During President Nixon's presidency, he appointed more women to high level positions in this administration than all his predecessors.   President Nixon was proud of his fight against the discrimination of women and for equal rights of women.  In 1973, President Nixon appointed Anne Legendre Armstrong as the first woman to be "Counselor to the President".

In 1969 the position of "Counselor to the President" was created and assigned Cabinet Rank. During Nixon's presidency there were eight separate individuals who held this position, with two or three sometimes holding the position simultaneously.   When Ann Armstrong was appointed, she was already a prominent figure in both Texas and national Republican parties to the position.   As Counselor to Nixon, Mrs. Armstrong created the White House Office of Women’s Programs to provide a liaison between the president and women’s groups and sought to recruit female appointees to high-level government positions and to broaden opportunities for women in the federal government.  As counselor, Armstrong became highly visible for her willingness to face hostile audiences as the Watergate scandal gathered force.  One New York Times described her as the Nixon administration’s “best, brave front to the public.”

In addition to Counselor to the President, Nixon appointed three women to be head of Federal agencies. 

• Dixy Lee Ray -  Nixon appointed Mrs Ray to be chairwoman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Under Ray's leadership, research and development was separated from safety programs,
• Hon. Helen Delich Bentley -   After writing some pieces for the his Campaign, President Nixon recruited Bentley to be Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. She left office in 1975 to become a business consultant and, in 1984 was elected to Congress representing Baltimore and Hartford counties, Maryland.
•  Elizabeth Dole - In 1973, Nixon appointed Dole to the United States Tariff Commission where she served for 7 years.  I 1975, she took a leave from her post to campaign for her husband as vice president of the United States.  In 1975, the United States Tariff Commission was renamed to the International Trade Commission.

 In his 1974 State of the Union Address, President Nixon touted the role of these women as examples of how he was working to reach one of his administration's primary goal of ensuring full equal opportunity for women in jobs that were previously reserved for men.  Nixon wanted to lead by example, by bringing more women into the highest levels of government.

"One of the primary goals of this Administration is to ensure full equal employment opportunity for women by striving to open to women jobs that previously were reserved for men, often simply by habit or custom. Specifically, we have moved vigorously both to enforce the law and to lead by example---by insisting on equal employment and promotion opportunities within the Federal service, by promoting more women into the professionally critical areas of middle management and by continuing our special recruiting drive to bring more women into the highest levels of Government. 

To help advance these goals I have appointed the first woman Counsellor to the President, and she, in turn, has set up a new Office of Women's Programs within my executive office. We are particularly proud that this Administration is the first to have women as heads of three independent Federal agencies--the Atomic Energy Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, and the United States Tariff Commission."

Mrs. Anne Armstrong stayed on as counselor under Ford and helped plan the United States bicentennial celebration.  Mrs. Armstrong was a keynote speaker at the 1972 Republican convention and the first woman in either party to deliver a keynote address. In 1980, Mrs. Armstrong was chairwoman of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign and then became the chairwoman of Reagan's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board until 1990.  In 1987, Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  In 2008, Anne Armstrong died at the age of 80.

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/annual-message-the-congress-the-state-the-union [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].

Grimes, W. (2019). Anne Armstrong, Presidential Adviser and Pioneering Politician, Dies at 80. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/washington/31armstrong.html [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].

National Archives. (2019). National Archives Revisits Women in the Nixon Administration March 8. [online] Available at: https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2012-131 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].

Smith, S. (2019). Advancing the Cause of Women » Richard Nixon Foundation. [online] Richard Nixon Foundation. Available at: https://www.nixonfoundation.org/exhibit/advancing-women/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].