Before her cabinet position, Franklin served in the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan.

With a partial scholarship and loans, Franklin entered the newly co-ed Harvard Business School as one of 14 women in a class of 680 men.

[4][5] In 1971, while at the First National City Bank, Franklin was recruited by President Richard Nixon to bring more qualified women into high-level policy-making government positions.

[5]In February 1971, Nixon gave Fred Malek, head of Presidential Personnel and a former classmate of Franklin's at Harvard Business School, the task of hiring a woman who would spearhead the effort to recruit other women for policy-making government jobs.

[5] On April 21, 1971, Nixon directed the heads of White House departments and independent agencies to create specific action plans to "clearly demonstrate our recognition of the equality of women by making greater use of their skills in high level positions."

[7] Among them were Cynthia Holcomb Hall, judge on the United States Tax Court; Marina von Neumann Whitman, the first woman on the president's Council of Economic Advisers; Romana Banuelos, the first Hispanic to be U.S. treasurer; Betty Southard Murphy, general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board; and Dixy Lee Ray, the first and only woman to chair the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

[5][7] On March 8, 2012, the book A Matter of Simple Justice: The Untold Story of Barbara Hackman Franklin and A Few Good Women was launched at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C., in a program covered by C-SPAN and moderated by Judy Woodruff of PBS NewsHour.

Lee Stout, Librarian Emeritus and former Head of Public Services and Outreach for Special Collections at the Penn State University Libraries, wrote the book.

He called Franklin and suggested an oral history project to preserve the memories of the men and women involved in this presidential initiative.

[10] In 1997, the "A Few Good Women" oral history project was created with an advisory board chaired by Franklin and with a cooperative relationship with the Penn State University Libraries.

Initially, the board had a list of twelve women appointees from the Nixon administration to be interviewed, including Margita White, Constance B. Newman, and Helen Delich Bentley, former Congresswoman and Chair of the Federal Maritime Commission.

In the second part of the book, Stout highlights the personal stories of many of the other interviewees from this project, such as Ambassador Anne Armstrong, Senator Elizabeth Dole, Judge Cynthia Hall, and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Carla Hills.

Interviewees talk about early influences, breaking down barriers, the impact on family, the role of networking, and the challenge of gaining entry into the legal profession.

The teaching aids are designed to provide oral histories, biographies, audio segments, images, and digitized historical documents of the "A Few Good Women" collection as a curriculum for grades 6–12 students.

She was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as an Alternative Representative & Public Delegate, UN General Assembly, 44th Session (1989–90).

[16] This nomination was approved by the United States Senate, and shortly thereafter, she was sworn in on February 27, 1992, which made Franklin the highest-ranking woman in the George H.W.

[15] In a letter to the editor of the New York Times published on December 29, 1992, Franklin said:[18] Several weeks ago President Bush asked me to lead a Presidential mission to China, following his decision to resume high-level economic talks with the Chinese.

The driving rationale for the mission was to promote economic growth and jobs in the United States by insuring that American businesses have the support and opportunity to capitalize on the booming Chinese market, growing at 12 percent a year ... President Bush's policy of constructive engagement is a long-term investment in our economic future and is already delivering results in China and in the United States ...

Franklin has been a participant in every Republican convention from 1972 to 2008 as a delegate, organizer, or speaker and has been involved in numerous campaigns, both on the national and state levels.

Following her departure from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Franklin was offered seats on the boards of several large U.S. companies, such as Dow Chemical, Aetna, Inc., and Westinghouse.