Jill Ruckleshaus – in an address to The National Press Club on September 12, 1975 on the occasion of International Women’s Year: 1975.
Here is a brief rundown on the career of Jill Ruckleshaus as described by Wikipedia.
Jill Ruckelshaus was a former special White House assistant and head of the White House Office of Women’s Programs and a feminist activist. She also served as a commissioner for the United States Commission on Civil Rights in the early 1980s. Currently, she is a director for the Costco Wholesale Corporation.
Ruckelshaus is known for her role as a leading Republican advocate for feminist policies, such as the Equal Rights Amendment and women’s reproductive choice, during the peak of political influence for second-wave feminism in the United States. For this, she was referred to as the “Gloria Steinem of the Republican Party” for her outspoken positions on women’s issues. Her role in the movement, portrayed by Elizabeth Banks, was dramatized in the Mrs. America miniseries, with the sixth episode of the series in her name.
Following the 1972 presidential election, Ruckelshaus served as an assistant to Anne Armstrong and head of the White House Office of Women’s Programs. She resigned in 1974, having been part of the White House staff for a little more than a year.
She was later appointed by President Gerald Ford as presiding officer of the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year in 1975. In this capacity, she was a leading advocate for congressional funding that would support the 1977 National Women’s Conference. She was also one of the four representatives in the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations World Conference of the International Women’s Year in Mexico City, which was from June 19 to July 2, in 1975. She resigned from her position as presiding officer in June 1976 as her family moved to Washington state, remaining as an ordinary member for the rest of the year.
In 1980, she was appointed as a commissioner for the United States Commission on Civil Rights by President Jimmy Carter. As a Republican appointee by a Democratic president, she was one of the few to survive an initial challenge to her position, with President Reagan nominating a replacement in 1982. This nominee would ultimately not be taken up by Congress for approval. As a member of the commission, she joined the majority membership frequently criticizing the administration’s positions on women and minority groups.
She would hold the position through late 1983. While it was anticipated that her term on the commission would be extended, she was ultimately replaced in that year. In a 2005 interview, she alleged this was because of her moderate political views. Indeed, in an internal White House memo, she was characterized as a “thorn” for the administration, given her popular support in Congress and her critical position of the administration’s policies. As part of a negotiated deal to reform the Civil Rights Commission, the membership moved from congressional approval of presidential nominees to an even split of four presidential appointees and four congressional appointees. While some had expected Ruckelshaus to be named as one of the congressional appointees by the House Minority Leader (then a Republican), she was not put forward for renomination along with fellow Republican feminist Mary Louise Smith.
Within a month of her replacement and the reconstitution of the commission, the new members would reverse previous positions held by the old membership on affirmative action and would become substantially more susceptible to the political whims of the presidency.
She attended the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, leading a march of roughly 4,500 supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment to rally for the Republican Party’s reaffirmation of support for the proposed amendment. Although unsuccessful in preserving her party’s support for the ERA, she was part of a group of feminist women Republicans who secured a private commitment from then-nominee Ronald Reagan to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court of the United States. A year later into his presidency, Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to join the court.
Here is her address to the National Press Club, as broadcast live by National Public Radio on September 12, 1975.