Juanita Morris Kreps (1921-2020) was the first female director of the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman Secretary of Commerce; she dedicated her career to holding corporations to higher standards.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we’re diving into the life of a groundbreaking economist. As the first female director of the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman Secretary of Commerce, she dedicated her career to holding corporations to higher standards. Though her work was often overlooked and underappreciated, she never lost sight of her desire to change the world.
Today, we’re talking about Juanita Morris Kreps.
Juanita was born Clara Juanita Morris on January 11, 1921, in the coal-rich Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky. Juanita’s father, Elmer, ran a small, independent mine. Juanita was her parents’ sixth child.
When Juanita was ten years old, her hometown became embroiled in the Harlan County War.
In 1931, coal bosses cut the already impoverished miners’ pay by ten percent. When the miners tried to unionize, it sparked a violent, decade-long battle. Though Juanita’s father was in management and had to bargain with workers, he was sympathetic to their situation. Most of Juanita’s family sided with the miners. Juanita would later remember that period as one of fear and bloodshed.
Juanita’s parents had divorced when she was four and she lived with her mother until the age of 12, when she was sent to a Presbyterian boarding school. Growing up during the Great Depression sparked an interest in driving economic reform. She saw education as a path towards change.
At Berea College, in Kentucky, Juanita studied economics and graduated with honors. She went on to earn her master’s degree in economics from Duke in 1944, followed by a doctorate in 1948. She married William Kreps, an economics professor, in 1944 and they both taught at various schools in the subsequent decades. For her, this included Denison University, Queens College, and Duke University. In 1972, Juanita was awarded Duke’s most prestigious chair position, and in 1973 she was appointed the university’s vice-president.
Juanita was interested in labor struggles and their intersection with gender. In her work, Juanita specialized in the labor demographics of women and older workers. In 1971, she released a book titled “Sex in the Marketplace: American Women at Work”. In it, she explores why women were entering the same monotonous jobs year after year and why so few had advanced degrees. She wrote “they continue to staff the clerical jobs, the elementary classrooms, and the salerooms; they are almost never vice-presidents or high school principals or hospital administrators.”
Juanita took some time off work to raise her children in the 1950s. Though she later said she didn’t regret the decision, she said in 1986, “I think what it did was put me a few years behind the level of achievement that many young women expect today.”
Despite any setback she may have felt, Juanita continued to excel. In 1972, she was the first woman to become director of the New York Stock Exchange, an enormous achievement in a male-dominated industry. She was also appointed to many boards of large companies. Then, in 1977, Juanita was one of two women appointed to President Jimmy Carter’s cabinet. She served as the United States Secretary of Commerce, and was the first woman and the first economist to hold that position. A long-time Duke colleague, Craufurd Goodwin told the LA Times, “It was an unusual appointment, since most Commerce secretaries at that time were businessmen who just wanted that line on their resume.She wasn’t in the inner circle in Washington, but she was very self-confident and didn’t take any nonsense from anybody.”
It was perhaps the most unappreciated job in the cabinet. During a time of rising inflation and unemployment, Juanita became a key figure in the President’s circle of advisors, helping Carter strengthen relationships with corporate leaders.
But she also emphasized the importance of businesses acting with a greater concern for social responsibility, beyond profit. She was an advocate for women and older workers, the unemployed, and minority-owned businesses.
Then, familial duty called. She served until late October of 1979, ending her time in office after her husband suffered an apparent suicide attempt.
She continued to teach at Duke, and earned many awards and honorary degrees in the years after her time in cabinet. Influenced by the economic poverty of her childhood, Juanita raised awareness of the challenges faced by workers whose problems were often forgotten by those in power in the business world.
Juanita Morris died on December 14, 2020, at the age of 82.
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