The Nation: A Tough, Charming Cabinet Woman

The third woman Cabinet member in the nation’s history was nominated last week by President Ford. Designated to become Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, she is Carla Anderson Hills, 41, now an Assistant Attorney General heading the civil division of the Justice Department. If confirmed by the Senate, she will replace James T. Lynn, the new director of the Office of Management and Budget. The only other women to achieve such status were Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins in Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration and Oveta Culp Hobby, appointed HEW Secretary by Dwight Eisenhower.

Mrs. Hills is a cheery, intelligent lawyer who gets straight-A marks from the 450 lawyers and aides whose work she has supervised at Justice. Her colleagues describe her as “strong-willed,” “forceful,” “enormously bright” and “extremely competent.” Adds Deputy Attorney General Laurence Silberman: “She seems to be able to blend a high professional standing and ability with an undeniable femininity. And she is also as tough as nails.”

Mrs. Hills, a Republican, was first proposed for her high Justice Department post by former Attorney General Elliot Richardson, and arrived in Washington on the day of the Saturday Night Massacre in which Richardson resigned. Her husband Roderick is both a lawyer and chairman of Republic Corp., a California conglomerate. They and their four children, aged four to 13, share a spacious home in a fashionable Washington neighborhood.

Before moving to Washington because of Mrs. Hills’ new job, the Hillses both worked in the same Los Angeles law firm. Although Republic is Los Angeles-based, Hills did not object to the move east. “It hasn’t hampered my career at all,” he said. “Carla accompanied me when I spent a year at Harvard. Now it’s her turn.” Adds Hills about his wife: “She can beat me at tennis—and that bothers me more than her being a better lawyer.”

Mrs. Hills’ academic credentials are first-rate: honors graduate of Stanford, upper 15% of her Yale Law class, study at Oxford, law teacher at U.C.L.A. Her first service with the Justice Department began in 1959, when she spent two years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles. Wisconsin Democratic Senator William Proxmire, whose Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee will first handle the nomination, contends that not a lawyer but an expert in housing is needed at HUD.

Nevertheless, to refuse confirmation of Ford’s only Cabinet-level woman appointee would be an act of political foolhardiness that few other Senators are likely to risk.