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America's new first family is multicultural and diverse, so I'm holding out hope that a Barack Obama cabinet will be a diverse one, too, but not just on ethnicity. I want to see plenty of lipstick and mascara around the first cabinet meeting held by President Obama, too.
When lots of names of men started getting floated as cabinet possibilities in the days immediately after the election, my heart sank and I started to feel a little anxious.
Where were all the women's names? In 2008, surely there could more than a few token mentions.
There are plenty of well-qualified women in our country to fill all the posts that need filling, so why were the first lists coming out filled with so many Y chromosomes? Some immediately pointed to Valerie Jarrett, the first woman to be named to any position in the new administration as Senior Advisor, as a sign of things to come, but she's a longtime Obama friend, mega-fundraiser for him AND co-chair of his transition team. Jarrett may have some wise and valuable advice to offer a President Obama, but naming her as the first female appointee to the White House to me said "promoting friends" more than "promoting women."
It turns out the ladies at Tennessee Guerrilla Women are a little worried, too:
We never expected Obama to keep up with Spain by nominating a majority female cabinet, but we did hope he would keep up with Bill Clinton.
President Clinton set the record for the nation's all time high in the number of women cabinet members and cabinet-level appointees.
With Obama's choices of Tom Daschle for Secretary of Health and Human Services and Eric Holder for Attorney General, it appears that Obama may not even be able to keep up with George W. Bush's 2nd best record. Apparently, when Obama said he wanted change, he was not thinking about us sweeties.
Yes, plenty of other names have now surfaced, but many of them have been on the Obama bandwagon for a long time. While people like Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano (a possible candidate for Department of Homeland Security) and Penny Pritzker (a real estate executive who raised money for Obama who was thought to be in the running for Secretary of Commerce, but has denied it) might be qualified, but I'd like to see some other names -- names of those who are qualified and haven't been fundraisers or early-adopters. With the exception of Hillary Clinton's name being floated for Secretary of State, it seems like Obama is leaning heavily to insider confidantes with which to surround himself.
Other women in politics, like Madeleine Kunin, former Governor of Vermont, are a little concerned, too:
There are no more excuses for leaving women out of the inner circles of power. Qualified women are everywhere. Women are ready for leadership; they just need to be identified and asked.
And women must promote themselves. Having worked in the Clinton transition, I can say from first-hand experience that the appointment process, like most things in life, is not based on merit alone. It involves politics in the broadest sense of the word. Those who speak up, those who use their connections are more likely to succeed than those who sit and wait.
Why hasn't there been any Treasury Secretary talk about uber-qualified Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (which also gets him a GOP pick) or Laura D'Andrea Tyson, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton? Both are being mentioned for Commerce, but Treasury is higher profile and wields more power and influence. (And we all know it's the women who balance the checkbook at home anyway, right?)
I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that President-elect Obama and his transition team think a little more outside the box on women who would be amazing additions to a new cabinet. I'd love to see some names of non-politicos for some slots. What about Elizabeth Edwards for Health and Human Services instead of Tom Daschle? I'm sure you've got some favorites, too.
I've bequeathed one of my old T-shirts to my eight-year-old daughter that features a drawing of the planet with the phrase, Women: We'll Settle for Half. Maybe I should send it on as a little reminder for President-elect Obama?
BlogHer Politics & News Contributing Editor
