November 12, 2008: Larry Summers is not “Change We Can Believe In” and may put national economy in peril
For Immediate Release
Contact: Amy Siskind
Email: NewAgendaPress@yahoo.com
Date: 11.12.08
LARRY SUMMERS IS NOT “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN” AND MAY PUT NATIONAL ECONOMY IN PERIL
The New Agenda called on President-elect Obama to build on the progress made tapping talented women in the Clinton and Bush administrations and noted that appointing Larry Summers to Treasury Secretary would be a grave mistake.
“Not only does Larry Summers have an unequivocal record of sexism and misogyny, his work history demonstrates a clear inability to work well with others, especially women,” said The New Agenda co-founder Amy Siskind. The only thing Bill Clinton and George W. Bush may have in common is that they appointed more women than any of their predecessors. This is progress our nation must build on to regain our economic strength.
During George W. Bush’s first term, eight of his top 18 staffers were women and Condoleezza Rice was the first woman to ever serve as national security adviser. Bush also put women at the helm of EPA, Labor, Agriculture and Interior.
In Clinton’s first term, women comprised nearly 40 percent of the first 500 appointments in the cabinet and large federal agencies. Over his two terms 27 people held top cabinet positions and five of them were women. Notably Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Attorney General Janet Reno succeeded in traditional male domains.
Given the nation’s dire economic situation it is critical that the Obama transition team select highly qualified individuals who can immediately address the worries and fears of the American public. Summers’ record of derogatory comments aimed at women ensures that his selection would be divisive and thus distract from efforts to fix the economy. While serving as Treasury Secretary, Summers ignored an early warning from a woman colleague about the unregulated derivative market. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Brooksley E. Born correctly foresaw that unregulated derivatives trading could put other financial markets at risk.
Summers later resigned as President at Harvard after stating that women are genetically disinclined to achieve at advanced levels of math and science. His remarks ignited a firestorm of controversy that led the faculty to express a lack of confidence in his ability to lead the university. “Summers’ years at Harvard are replete with accounts of his personal disparagement of colleagues and subordinates,” said Dr. Nancy Hopkins, The New Agenda co-founder and MIT biology professor.
Interestingly, The Rosalind Franklin Society, named after the woman whose work was used to solve the structure of DNA, issued a statement this week that Summers has deterred girls from aspiring to careers in science and changed the confidence with which teachers and parents delivered the message, “you can do anything” to girls interested in science.
Since our nation’s founding 33 women have served in cabinet level positions, leaving an indelible mark on our nation’s social and economic policies. The first was Frances Perkins appointed by FDR as Secretary of Labor in 1933, where she played a key role writing New Deal legislation, including minimum-wage laws. She also chaired the President’s Committee on Economic Security, which was responsible for creating the Social Security Act of 1935.
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