Overview
Julie Nixon was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C. She graduated
from Smith College in 1970 and received a master's degree
in Elementary Education from Catholic University in 1971.
She was active in both of her father's presidential campaigns
and during the Nixon administration, she traveled across
the country, representing the White House on behalf of children's
issues, the environment, and the elderly. She married David
Eisenhower on December 28, 1968. From 1973-75, Nixon Eisenhower
served as Assistant Managing Editor of the Saturday Evening
Post, and helped establish a book division for Curtis Publishing
Co., its parent corporation. Since that time, she has written
or edited five books, including Pat Nixon: The Untold Story,
a biography of her mother. She has an extensive record of
community service in the Philadelphia area and is co-chair
of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace
Foundation.
About the Transcript
Julie Nixon Eisenhower's interview provides her perceptions of
her father's attitudes toward the emerging feminist movement
and the project to appoint more women to leadership positions
in his administration. She also gives insights into her mother's
role and how Pat Nixon encouraged these ideas through conversations
with her husband, suggestions, and advocacy for issues ranging
from having women military aides and secret service agents
in the White House, to support for the Equal Rights Amendment
and the appointment of a woman justice to the Supreme Court.
She also reflects on her own interest in and support for these
issues as a college student and newly-married young woman seeking
to have a career as well as a family of her own. She places
her father's comments from the released White House tapes on
women and African-Americans in context, by noting their selection
to prove a particular bias.