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University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 72- 30,092 GEORGE, Elsie L., 1921- THE WOMEN APPOINTEES OF THE ROOSEVELT AND TRUMAN ADMINISTRATIONS: A STUDY OF THEIR IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS. The American University, Ph.D., 1972 History, modern University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © Copyright by Elsie L. George 1972 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE WOMEN APPOINTEES OF THE ROOSEVELT AND TRUMAN ADMINISTRATIONS A STUDY OF THEIR IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS by Elsie L. George Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Dean of the CollegeO Date: M rM^> ^ 1972 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY The American University Washington, D. C. JUL 20 1972 WS(, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Grateful acknowledgement is made to Doubleday & Company, Inc., for permission to quote from Memoirs by Harry S. Truman, cpoyright 1955. Appreciative acknowledgement is made to the staffs at the Franklin D. Roosevelt ana Schlesinger Libraries and the National Archives for their invaluable and pleasant assistance. Thankful acknowledgement is due all the individuals who shared their knowledge of the women appointees with me and to the members of my dissertation committee: Thomas V. Di Bacco, Chairman, Barbette Blackington, and Robert L. Beisner. It would not have been possible without the cooperation of Otto and the rest of my family. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................ 1 Chapter I. FROM WOMAN'S RIGHTS TO WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT.......... 8 From Woman's Rights to Woman’s Suffrage * . 8 Women in Politics and Government after Suffrage . 15 II. WOMEN IN THE NEW AND FAIR DE A L S .................... 33 The E r a s ........................................ 33 The Attitudes of the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations Toward Women in Government .... 40 The Appointments: What, How Many, and Why .... 69 Quality of Support Given Appointees by Administration Leadership .......... ...... 86 Attitudes of Administrations Toward Holdover Appointees .................. .......... 90 Appointment of Qualified Women Withheld or Avoided .............. 92 III. MOLLY DEWSON ................................. 98 Her Background ................. 99 Her Attitude toward the Position ........ 107 Her P erformance...................... 110 Her Impact..................... 131 IV. ELLEN SULLIVAN WO O D W A R D ............................. 135 Her Background ................. 136 Her View of the Position ............. 138 Her Performance ................. 146 Her Impact .................... 180 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V. HILDA WORTHINGTON S M I T H ......................... 185 Her Background ................ 186 Her View of the Position ............ 190 Her Performance ................ 192 Her Impact ............ .......... 219 VI. MARION GLASS B A N I S T E R ........................... 224 Her Background ......... .............. 226 Her View of the Position ............ 234 Her Performance .................... 239 Her Impact ......... 248 VII. FRIEDA BARKIN H E N N O C K ........................... 251 Her Background ................. 252 Her View of the Position 257 Her Performance ........... ........ 262 Her Impact .................. 286 VIII. THE WOMEN APPOINTEES— THEIR SIGNIFICANCE......... 292 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................... 301 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES Table Page I. Women in State Legislatures, 1920-1953 ...... 96 II. Participation of Women in National Political Conventions, 1920-1948 ............. 96 III, Women on Major National Convention Committees . 97 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION August 25, 1970 was the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, extending the franchise to women. Special television programs, newspaper stories, and parades and demonstrations marked the day. The celebrations embodied awareness that the vote had failed to bring equality to women. In 1970, the women's liberation movement continued and expanded protests and goals voiced by women over a century earlier. Women's liberation, like the woman's rights movement, seeks not only political equality but economic and social equality as well, for in none of these areas do women leaders today feel that they have achieved their goals.^ This feeling prevails despite the high expectations of many advocates of the 19th amendment who had anticipated that woman suffrage would lead to more equality for women in a variety of ways, including the greater participation of women in the political process, an involvement which could be used to bring not only economic and social equality but a qualitative improvement in government generally. T h e singular form of woman was customarily used in the United States, thus woman's rights and woman's suffrage, although the plural form was used in England. Women today use the plural form, thus women's liberation. The possessive form is not consis­ tently used. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 These expectations have not been realized. Women con­ stituted 53 per cent of the electorate in 1970, yet only one United States Senator and eleven Representatives were women, no state governors were women, no Cabinet members were women, and the number of secondary positions filled by women had not in- 2 creased substantially since the days of the New Deal. President Richard M. Nixon, following the precedent of his predecessors, was looking for qualified women to appoint to high federal office. "Let us all recognize that women surely have a still wider role to play in the political, economic, and social life of our country," read the President’s Proclamation noting the anniversary.^ During the half century between woman suffrage and women’s liberation, the number of women elected to political office has remained small; female participation in political parties has increased in number and visibility, but not in decisive influence; although women have constituted a majority of the total civilian government work force, they have attained influential positions only in minute proportion 4 to their numbers. Few women have achieved high office— two have been appointed to the Cabinet, and a few hundred have reached in­ fluential status in sub-Cabinet rank and in the lesser echelons of ^New York Times, August 24, 1971, p. 44. ^Ibid., August 26, 1970, p. 1. ^Martin Grub erg, Women in American Politics: An Assessment and Sourcebook (Oshkosh, Wisconsin: Academia Press, 1968), p. 38. (Hereinafter referred to as Women in American Politics). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. government administration during that half century.^ What did

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