Cabinet Count: 18 men, 5 women: this is acceptable?
February 26, 2009
by The New Agenda
|27 Comments
As Maria Bartiromo of CNBC put it yesterday: “three times a charm.”
Yesterday, President Obama nominated his third pick for Commerce Secretary. President Obama’s first two picks, Bill Richardson and Judd Gregg both pulled their names from consideration.
With this pick, President Obama has now nominated a total of 23 people for cabinet level positions. Of the 23 picked, 18 have been men and only 5 are women. This amounts to 22% of President Obama’s picks being women, although 52% of the population is women. Far cry from acceptable.
President Obama has one pick left – Secretary HHS – again as Daschle’s name was pulled from consideration. Let’s hope for a woman this time!
Not much to say other than Obama has failed the test of significantly appointing more women, particularly majority women, within his cabinet than other administrations.
Given the degree to which minorities and minority women hold cabinet or cabinet-level positions, one can honestly question whether Obama has a bias against majority women.
No. It’s not acceptable. Expected, yes. Acceptable, no.
No, it is not acceptable.
While ensuring the final spot goes to a women, TNA should be sure it is lining up behind the women who have been selected already.
These five women, along with Romer, Bair, Valerie and other women in 2nd tier spots, need the vocal support of women’s organizations. Asking questions like:
1. Are there budgets increasing or decreasing
2. Do they have access to the President, or are they being marginalized and
3. What are their plans to leverage their positions to benefit other women
Completely unacceptable, he broke his promise to all those women who trusted him especially when so many women were undecided as to who to vote for after he had taken the nomination.
No, it is not acceptable! He avoids women like the plague – I see many photos of the ‘economic team’ and there are four men and NoBama.
I am incensed that the “change” I didn’t believe in is even more male-centric than either Bush admin. Things are dire when conservative GOP oilmen have a better record of recruiting and promoting women than the darling of the liberal media, NoBama.
Just sick about this. And so little questioning of The One. He can do no wrong? It’s OK to simply exclude representatives of more than half the population??
This must be righted somehow!
Would Hillary had had all women by her side – and would that have been fine? Hmmm, didn’t think so.
This is a lost cause. He proved that before he was elected.
Why not another Press Release about the current count? I think we need to continue to speak up!
I wrote this on an old thread, and am copying it here.
I don’t accept the “look how far we’ve come” argument anymore — not after I saw Hillary and everyone who dared to support her attacked in the most vile and dehumanizing manner from every media outlet in the country. After the tears and shock, my eyes were opened, and I saw other things, too. I learned that battles like women’s choice that we thought was still barely hanging in have already been lost. While we’ve been focused on how nine Supreme Court justices may vote, 87% of counties in the US have no access to abortion services at all, and the Democrats are tripping over each other to distance themselves from support for choice. We’ve read here about scary increases in violence against women. What was it — 42% in two years? Women’s representation in the halls of power, from business to Congress is flat to declining. Where is the ERA? Do you realize that women still lack equal Constitutional standing in this country? Every man has it. President Obama has it. Half our population — the female half — do not.
The successful women’s movements of the past didn’t settle for less when people said they were asking for too much, too soon. They organized and agitated, facing humiliation and beatings and prison, and they did not back down. Let’s study what worked and be honest with ourselves that never — NEVER — is power given away. We have to demand it. That starts with believing that anything less than 50% of positions of power in every sphere being held by women is an insult. Let us use our righteous anger, our voices and and our votes, as well as our economic power in deciding where we spend our dollars to make this demand known and felt. We will not have ‘come so far’ until we’re there.
*****A
Business as usual:
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes......ll-street/
Here is the Forbes article:
“Terminated: Why the Women on Wall Street are Disappearing.”
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2.....women.html
Mary,
Thanks for this article. It highlights the importance of TNA also finding a practical way of supporting the women and men (Solis, Holder, Karen Mills [the SBA Chief] and Locke) with the responsibility of fostering equal opportunity and pay equity for women in corporate America and within small businesses.
I think you misunderstood my point with your comment “I don’t accept the “look how far we’ve come” argument anymore” and then you say “The successful women’s movements of the past…” My point is that they were successfful, and because they were successful, we should learn how/why they were successful and apply them to our movement.
karen,
I read your comment as you are describing it at 11.55. However some people say “We have come so far … we must be doing something right.” So that phrase makes it easy to misunderstand.
Granted there are usually fewer women at the right level in the pipeline … but still Bill Clinton did a better job finding women, which must have been even harder in 1992 than this year.
Time to ask these women for an updated report on the progress thus far:
http://www.now.org/issues/cons.....0Obama.pdf
Were you all vocal about the “This is What A Feminist Looks Like” Ms. magazine cover? That one slid by and as usual there was not enough public debate about the gender issues this president is laden with.
So – because he is mixed race, not white, he gets a pass on gender? Sure what is has ben looking like.
Very disappointed, not surprised.
Floria Lady,
What makes you say “because he is mixed race, not white, he gets a pass on gender?” Who has said this, or suggested this?
Why does race keep cropping into the discussion when we discuss Obama’s stance on women’s rights (and specifically the inclusion of majority women since his cabinet and staff appear to include many minority women).
Florida Lady,
Please excuse. I meant “Florida,” not “Floria”
Karen, I agree with you about learning and applying the successful strategies of earlier women’s movements. I guess what frustrates me about ‘look how far we’ve come’ is that for many women, that’s where it ends. It can be an emotional crutch, a way of self-soothing — as though having gained the vote and Title IX are enough, so don’t feel bad. And that’s the problem.
I believe lack of recognition about just how much we’ve lost while we’ve been congratulating ourselves about our successes (most of them now decades ago), promotes passive response — something that women, frankly, have to work harder to overcome. I find strength in knowing just how screwed over and patronized and betrayed we’ve been. Because it’s only in understanding the depth of the deficit in how women are treated in this country that we can summon the will to fight for what should be ours by now.
I find it useful to keep this word foremost in my mind:
Half.
We are half the people. Do we have half the influence over our families and communities and government and world? Until that day, we’ve not come far enough.
*****A
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY FOR A TNA PRESS RELEASE:
The Boston Globe ran the following article today: “Vacancies abound in crucial US posts: Obama vetting policy slows appointments.” http://www.boston.com/news/nat....._us_posts/
SUGGESTED ACTION PLAN:
How about a TNA Press Release pointing out that Obama is overlooking 52% of the population, and that there are many, many qualified women for Senior Posts in the Administration? Also, this is another opportunity to point out the lack of women in the Cabinet.
We can all suggest qualified women for Senior Posts in the following areas. Here are some ideas to get us started:
1. HHS Secretary – a Cabinet position – insist on a woman:
Governor Kathleen Sebelius
Marcia Angell, MD
2. Treasury Department:
Bethany McLean
Meredith Whitney
Brooksley Born
3. Department of Education
4. Department of Defense
Kevin,
The commenter didn’t “say” it, she asked a question. It’s a legitimate question given the sexist actions and misogynistic attitude of Obama and his supporters’ seeming acceptance of such actions and attitude. It seems that many of his defenders, such as yourself, are very focused on race and not so much on gender. It’s an honest question that deserves an honest answer. (No talking points or scripts please.)
Personally, I don’t care whether he has “majority” or “minority” women in his cabinet. I just want more women represented. 51% would be just about right.
GSM17,
“Given the sexist actions and misogynistic attitude of Obama and his supporters’ seeming acceptance of such actions and attitude. ” This is quite a big generalization; does this group include all the women who voted for him?
“It seems that many of his defenders, such as yourself, are very focused on race and not so much on gender.” My guess is most of his defenders are interested in a general progressive agenda (increasing high income tax rates to provide universal health care, increasing corporate regulation, expanding energy policy from strictly oil production, etc.), not necessary a focus on race. Now, I am sure most of his African American supporters are interested in improving opportunities for African Americans but African Americans do not make up a majority of his supporters.
Finally, as one of his (and HRC’s) supporters, I am actually more focused on gender because the gender representation within the Administration is unacceptable. With the expectation of Eric Holder’s statement about race and HRC’s statement about women’s rights, I am disappointed that the administration does not talk a lot about diversity, civil rights, women’s rights or minority rights period. The legitimate argument is that they are focused on two wars, a recession, and a imploding financial system.
So again, who is saying or suggesting “because he is mixed race, not white, he gets a pass on gender?” I am not saying it is not an honest question, or that it does not deserve an answer. Or that he appears to be getting a pass on the topic of women within his cabinet and within cabinet-level positions. I don’t know why this is. However, I cannot find any quote, or suggestive statement where commentators appear to be giving him a pass on gender progress BECAUSE he is of mixed race.
kevin said: “However, I cannot find any quote, or suggestive statement where commentators appear to be giving him a pass on gender progress BECAUSE he is of mixed race.”
It sure gives them something else to talk about.
As for ‘majority women’, I agree with you. A minority woman gives a two-fer, two tokens with the vote of one.
Florida Lady said: Were you all vocal about the “This is What A Feminist Looks Like” Ms. magazine cover?
Actually TNA did speak out about that, boldly, while NOW kept quiet.
PUMA blogs spoke out too.
Looks like Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was asked to be the HHS http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI.....s.nominee/
While six women isn’t a large enough appointments and Ms. Sebelius was Obama’s second source, this is a very, very important appointment given the amount of $’s in the budget for HHS and the push for universal health care. I so wish Obama would have appointed a women as Commerce Secretary and appointed a women either as Treasury Secretary (Geithner) or National Economic Council Chairperson (Summers). This number would not have been 51% but it would have represented progress.
Two women picked for Treasury withdraw:
http://www.reuters.com/article.....5K20090306
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