Dwight Eisenhower did not invent the Presidential advisory board. Presidents before and after have created such bodies. But apart from P(F)IAB - the Presidential (Foreign) Intelligence Advisory Board initiated by Eisenhower and continued by every president since (exception: Jimmy Carter) - most Presidential advisory boards have been short term endeavors, often although not always lacking teeth. One exception was Ronald Reagan's economic advisory board ("PEPAB"), which is what President-elect Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board ("PERAB") sounds like to me, so far. Reagan's board was not continued by his successors but it was highly powerful within his administration; given the high profile President-elect Obama is giving to PERAB it certainly seems like PEPAB, the group that kept Reagan firmly in the grips of supply-side economic theory and ideas about trickle-down economic benefits. The similarity lies not in economic philosophy necessarily (we do not yet know PERAB's theoretical bent or if it will have one) but in the importance attached to the board by the respective President or President-to-be.
To gain an idea of the multiplicity of the models, consider this totally nonexhaustive list of the Presidential advisory boards that have existed from FDR's time to the present:
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order 9387 - Establishing an Advisory Board on Just Compensation and Prescribing Its Functions
- Harry S. Truman, Statement by the President on Reestablishing the Advisory Board on Just Compensation
- Harry S. Truman, Statement by the President on the Advisory Board on International Development
- Lyndon Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Appointing the Air Quality Advisory Board
- Gerald R. Ford: Executive Order 11962 - President's Advisory Board on International Investment
- Jimmy Carter, Executive Order 11070 - Presidential Advisory Board on Ambassadorial Appointments
- William J. Clinton - Executive Order 13050 - President's Advisory Board on Race
- [William J.] Clinton Establishes Advisory Board on Tribal Colleges and Universities
- [George W.] Bush Names 21 Individuals to President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Universities and Colleges
This highly incomplete sampling demonstrates that in developing the idea of Presidential Empowerment of Women Advisory Board ("PEWAB"), the various templates will have to be surveyed. Which boards had teeth? Why? Looking at precedents can help with such questions, questions that must be answered if PEWAB is to be influential and reestablished by the Presidents that follow the 44th one, assuming the need for it continues. But for now the sample is worth reviewing because it reveals the range and flexibility of the advisory board tool.