[5] While the Carter presidency did originally consider reappointed a larger number of members from the Ford administration,[6] only a handful did so: Elizabeth Athanasakos, the outgoing presiding officer; Audrey Rowe Colom, chairperson of the National Women's Political Caucus; Martha Griffiths, the first woman elected to Congress from Michigan; Lenore Hershey, editor of Ladies' Home Journal; Ersa Poston, a civil servant from New York; and Gerridee Wheeler, Republican political official from North Dakota.

Prominent African American poet Maya Angelou and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King were added as members, as was Jean O'Leary, as a representative voice from the National Gay Task Force.

The report focuses on a number of issues, including gendered divisions of domestic labor, the Equal Rights Amendment, the under-representation of women in public life, and child care.

The report is notable for its endorsement of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and asked the government to continue to remove other barriers "to permit women greater choice with regard to their reproductive lives.

The conference was a key part of the FX on Hulu television series Mrs. America, where many of the Commission's members, including two of its three presiding officers, were main characters.