Obama gets do-over opportunity with Richardson exit – Appoint a woman
January 5, 2009
by The New Agenda
|The following is a press release sent out by The New Agenda this morning:
Obama: America’s Women Deserve a Chance to Serve
President-elect Barack Obama has been given another opportunity to answer history’s call. Governor Bill Richardson’s withdrawal from consideration as Commerce Secretary means Obama could raise the number of women in top cabinet posts.
The New Agenda co-Founder Amy Siskind said: “Women make up 46 percent of our workforce and 52 percent of our population and need adequate representation in our nation’s leadership. President-elect Obama now has a second chance to help move his cabinet forward in the right direction by picking a qualified woman for Commerce Secretary.”
To date, Obama has appointed only five women out of 21 total cabinet and cabinet-level positions. (See the “Cabinet Watch Scoreboard” for details).
The New Agenda recommendations include:
- Former eBay CEO, Meg Whitman
- Former Hewlett- Packard CEO Carly Fiorina
- Former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Comm. Chair Brooksley E. Born
- Former President, Morgan Stanley, Zoe Cruz
- Princeton University economics professor Cecilia Elena Rouse
- Former Citigroup, Inc. Executive Sallie Krawcheck
The President’s cabinet is traditionally comprised of 15 members, the Vice President, and a small number of cabinet ranking officials. Presidents Bill Clinton and Bush both expanded the participation of women. In Clinton’s first term, he appointed seven women to cabinet level positions and Bush appointed four, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Although these were record numbers they still fell far short of 52 percent – the percentage of women in the population.
Two women have held the top post at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the past. The first was Juanita Morris Kreps, who was the 24th United States Secretary of Commerce, from January 23, 1977 until October 31, 1979, under President Jimmy Carter. Barbara Hackman Franklin was the 29th United States Secretary of Commerce under President George H.W. Bush, holding the post from February 27, 1992 until January 20, 1993.
Appointing a woman as Secretary of Commerce would do much to ensure that women are not left out of job creation strategies in the coming years. As the UNIFEM report, Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009, observed:
Higher numbers of women in [government] generally contribute to stronger attention to women’s issues. A 2008 study of UK politics, for example, confirms that since the number of women in parliament doubled to 18.2 percent since the 1997 election, issues of particular importance to women – such as childcare and social protection – have received more attention.
Thank you for the press release. In my view, it could have hit even harder, comparing the numbers to Obama’s claim for change, this year’s historic achievements by women (Clinton and Palin) and what now looks to literally be a SET BACK for women, given prior administrations strides in this area regarding Cabinet appointmens. I also think that the press release ended on a weak note by getting tangled up in numbers, dates, stats. I kept looking for the page to continue to read how you summarized/wrapped up your statement, but there it ended.
Meanwhile, since the e-mail to members isn’t posted here, may I say: FANTASTIC JOB!!! on that!!!! Visual design is great and professional and all the news reported is so encouraging and pointing to an ever growing organization that is establishing a solid foundation from which to move forward. Great articulation of things to zero in on, etc. All the way around, superb!!!!
I you truly be pleased to see Meg Whitman in this role.
This should be a no brainer for Obama – choose a women, there are plenty with the qualifications. In fact, there were plenty with better qualifications than Richardson.
Kevin, I know you’ve been saying all along that we need more women in positions like Commerce and Labor. We have a couple of posts in the queue on this topic. I think it’s important, and I encourage you to explain your reasoning further, if you have time.
Great press release! Delighted to see it.
Anything else we can do to encourage the appointment of a woman for Commerce Secretary?
We are also sending the more comprehensive piece that Sheryl just wrote around to the press and other blogs….should be widely viewed by tomorrow.
Sheryl,
I believe women should be aggressively appointed to positions where their general employment numbers are low and where young women sometimes avoid the field (such as engineering, construction, etc.) because this unused talent is a economic security risk to the country (why the Secretary of Energy appointment was critical to me); women should be aggressively appointed to positions that command resources, particularly financial resources where they can help other women (why the Treasury and Commerce Secretary appointments were important to me); women should be appointed to positions where laws, rules, policies and regulations are created, monitored and enforced to add other women (why the Labor Secretary appointment were important to me) and women should be appointed to positions that impact their ability to obtain adequate health and dependent care for their child and dependents (which women are usually more burdened with than men and which limits their career opportunities) – the is why the Secretary of Health & Human Services appointment was important to me.
I wanted women in these key appointments; Bill Richardson opens the door to get a second key one.
[...] New Agenda member Kevin explains why appointing a woman to Commerce is important for women. Person Kevin explains Right [...]
Why are we promoting Republican women who oppose pay equity? Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina may be great at running their companies but they both endorsed McCain and the Republican Party platform which expressly oppose pay equity legislation like the Ledbetter bill that is being voted on today.
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