Women Making Strides, Taking on New Roles in Obama Administration
This post was submitted by Jamie Bence, one of WCF’s Summer 2009 Fellows.
The National Journal reports this week that the Obama Administration has a larger proportion of women in top positions than any of its predecessors. Currently, President Obama’s team is 34% female, compared to 26% of President George Bush’s administration in 2001.
The new administration also brings unprecedented racial diversity to the White House. Only nine of the 22 officials designated by Obama as having Cabinet rank are white men.
Here are a few outstanding women working in the Obama Administration:
- Melody Barnes: She serves as the President’s Domestic Policy advisor and Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Barnes has been charged with issues relating to health care reform, civil rights and women’s health.
- Cassandra Butts: As Deputy White House Council, Butts performs a central role in White House Legal Affairs.
- Hillary Clinton: Obama’s former challenger is currently serving as the Secretary of State, the third woman in U.S. history to hold that position.
- Lisa Jackson: As administrator of the EPA, Jackson leads a nationwide staff of just over 18,000 civil servants. She is the first African American to hold that position.
- Katie Johnson: Just 27 years old, Johnson serves as the president’s personal secretary. However, what Johnson lacks in age she makes up for in experience, having previously worked for Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton and Parris Glendening.
- Valerie Jarrett: She is a Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Obama administration. Jarrett was also pivotal in the Obama-Biden Transition team.
- Janet Napolitano: The former Arizona governor serves as the third Secretary of Homeland Security.
- Susan Rice: The US representative to the United Nations was confirmed unanimously by the Senate in the first days of the Obama Administration.
- Desirée Rogers: A former Chicago business tycoon, Rogers has taken on the East Wing.
- Mona Sutphen: The White House Deputy Chief of Staff is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Despite the Obama Administration’s commitment to gender equality, women have still not reached parity in the White House. At the current rate of increase, it will take almost 100 years until women reach gender parity in politics. At WCF, we can’t wait that long. Can you?
Tags: Barack Obama, gender equality, gender parity, obama administration, president, president obama
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 10:50 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 24th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Although the Obama administration has made steps in attempting to include more women in political office (which is a great improvement), this is still not enough. We must continue to fight for gender equality and perhaps in the next term we will be closer to our goal!
July 20th, 2009 at 11:19 am
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