FRASER's 'Women of the FOMC' blog post profiled Horn as the first woman to serve as president of any of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
In March 2017, the Federal Reserve's digital archive project FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research) published a blog post titled 'Uncurrent Events: The Women of the FOMC,' which prominently profiled Karen N. Horn as the first woman ever to serve as president of any of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks.
The article traced the history of women's participation in the Federal Open Market Committee, recounting details of Horn's historic May 18, 1982 debut at the FOMC table, including Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker's remarks welcoming the women now present in what had long been an overwhelmingly male institution.
This retrospective piece, published roughly 35 years after Horn's initial appointment, reflects the enduring historical importance of her achievement and its continued relevance to discussions of gender diversity in central banking and economic policymaking. It served to reintroduce her legacy to a new generation of researchers, students, and policy observers accessing the Federal Reserve's historical archives.
FRASER, maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, is a primary digital repository for historical documents related to the Federal Reserve System and U.S. economic history, lending significant credibility and permanence to this recognition of Horn's pioneering role.