A Matter of Simple Justice
I have been re-reading this wonderful book, A Matter of Simple Justice. Here is a link to a website for the book.
The book is about Barbara Hackman Franklin and her pioneering work in the Nixon Administration, along with several other government women. It is a good read and the research from primary sources is outstanding. I hope to track down some of the clips listed in the notes.
My favorite parts of the book are about journalist Vera Glaser – whose work often ran in the women’s pages – and longtime government employee Catherine East – who often worked behind the scenes to sneak news to women’s page editors. These two pioneers are largely left out of the stories about women’s history although their contributions were significant. (Betty Friedan described Catherine as the “Deep Throat” for her secret tactics. Vera would have played the Bob Woodward role.)
I wrote a piece about Vera’s work a few years ago. I am now working on an article about the relationship between Vera and Catherine. This book will make a great addition to the paper. More documentation of the role between government women and women of the press in the 1960s and 1970s is needed.
In a random connection, the former head of the Nixon Library was John Taylor. His mother Jean was a great women’s page editor in Detroit and Los Angeles. I spoke to her a few years ago and included her in a paper about women’s roles in the industry organization ASNE.
