lee lee stout recounts admit -- nixon administrations promoting women to executive positions in the federal government. the administration's initiatives was led by barbara frank -- harbor hackman franklin who was hired in 1971 to enlist female candidates to fill high-level positions. this is about an hour and a half. >> good evening. i am the -- of the united states and it's a pleasure to welcome you to the william g. mcgowan theater and a special welcome to our c-span viewers. tonight we have a distinguished panel who will take a look at a little discussed topic, the role of women in the administration of president richard m. nixon. our panelists will discuss how the tenure of the nixon appointed cabinet would shape later generations of cabinets as assistance, geysers and heads of agencies and departments. we want to extend their thanks to barbara hackman franklin and the richard nixon foundation for their roles in making tonight's program possible. ron walker who is chairman of the foundation is with us tonight. where are you, ron? a special thanks to him for making this evening possible also. ron was in the nixon white house and he was the very first director of the white house office of presidential advance and he was responsible for a very important advance, the trip to china. before we begin the program tonight i would like to mention to programs that will take place in the mcgowan theater later this month. on tuesday march 20 at 7:00 p.m. the charles guggenheim center for documentary film presents the film, california state of mind, the legacy of pat around the inside look into political power in california in the 1960's and takes a new significance now that pat brown's son jerry is governor. the film will be followed by a panel discussion with a historian michael beschloss frago on sunday march 25 at 2:00 p.m., state review of ken burns forthcoming pbs film, the dust bowl, will be shown and it tells the story of an ecological disaster, the limits of government and then wrote perseverance of people affected. sponsored by the guggenheim center in partnership with the 2012 environmental film festival being held here in washington. to learn more about these programs in all of our public programs and exhibits please consult our calendar of monthly events. their copies in the lobby as well as a sign-up sheet where you can receive this by mail, physical mail or virtual mail. you'll also find our brochures and other national archives activities and events. another way to get more involved in the national archives is a member of the foundation for the national archives, the foundation supports all of our education outreach activities and their applications outside the lobby. finally, if you have not visited our gift shop recently, please do so. you can do that physically or virtually. a wonderful ray of reproductions from the records of the government and the most popular aired them especially significant tonight come as, is the photograph of richard nixon and elvis presley. [laughter] tonight's program is titled "a matter of simple justice," the untold story of barbara hackman franklin and a few good women. is the subject not largely discussed today. the next administration more than any previous presidency broaden the opportunities for women in government. tonight's panel will take a look at this aspect of the nixon presidency. our moderator is judy woodruff coanchor of the "pbs newshour" and a veteran broadcast journalist who has covered, with cnn, nbc and pbs. previously woodruff served as an anchor for cnn, hosting a weekly political program inside how it takes another major news coverage. earlier in her career she covered the white house for abc news. in 2006 she was visiting professor at duke university's stanford institute of public policy where she was an undergraduate, where i was a library in. after serving as a visiting fellow at harvard university center on the press politics and public policy. currently she also hosts a monthly program, cumbre stations with judy woodruff. let me turn that program over to you judy. welcome. >> thank you very much, thank you. [applause] i am delighted to be here for so many reasons, because this is a wonderful book that my friend are pro-franklin has produced. i urge all of you to read it if you haven't already. i am delighted to be here because this is international women's day so the timing is perfect. it is a day when we celebrate the copper schmitz of women, not just in this country but around the world. at the same time we consider in many regards and many respects how far women have yet to go, and i know this has been a day to think about that as we should every day but of course today in particular. but the timing barbara for this program could not be more special, more fortuitous. i have to say as i thought about what we were going to be talking about tonight, thought about the day we celebrate women, i was reminded of what the canadian writer charlotte whitten famously said. she said, she said in order to be thought half as talented as men, women have to be twice as good. she said luckily this is not difficult. [laughter] so i thought that was an appropriate backdrop for our conversation this evening. as you just heard this is about what happened during the nixon administration with regard to women. i would argue that it really does have to do with the progress that women in this country ever since then because what happens in the late 1960's and early 1970s were so much of the progress in so many of the opportunities that have taken place for women in the united states since then so this was really in my mind a pivotal ball moment for women in the united states. and so that is why i think it's incredibly important to consider what is in this book. so let's begin by meeting the panelists. there is an extensive biography in your program so i'm not going to read all of it except to say to my immediate right is the distinguished former congresswoman, former chairman of the maritime commission representative helen dela spent way. let's welcome representative ballet. [applause] in the center, barbara had been franklin about whom the book is an barbour we will be talking a lot about you tonight, barbara. [applause] and finally, lee stout with the pittsburgh state university. i'm sorry, penn state, penn state, forgive me, forgive me. penn state university in pittsburgh pennsylvania. i'm sorry, wrong city. i got the state right, pennsylvania. but the most important reason we are here is because this is his book, "a matter of simple justice," the untold story of barbara hatch and taylor and a few good women. lee, now that i have completely mangled your credentials i'm going to start with you and ask you to talk and to remind all of us what you wrote this book. what was it and what was behind this? >> the impetus was barbara. there's no question about that. penn state university archives has a program where we try to collect papers to distinguished alumni and alumni and one of their distinguished alumni was barbara and nancy eaton had made contact with her predecessor, so i came to washington meet with her. and we talked. this was after she served as secretary of commerce and we talked about the possibility of her c