President Joe Biden's List of Cabinet Picks Is Worthy of GenderAvenger's Highest Award
Joe Biden’s presidency is historic in a number of ways, most notably that his inauguration ceremony was held during a global pandemic and directly after a national security crisis. Perhaps the most historic piece is the number of women he has chosen to work alongside him. While his choice of Kamala Harris as the first woman, first South Asian American, and first Black Vice President has received the most attention, the number of women nominees in his Cabinet is also cause for celebration. 12 of the 25 nominees for Joe Biden’s Cabinet are women, which is the largest number in history. The previous record was eight women in each of the Clinton and Obama administrations, respectively. Of the 12 Biden nominees, 8 are women of color, which means this group of cabinet nominees earns the Biden administration a Gold GA Stamp of Approval.
Janet Yellen, the first woman to serve as Secretary of the Treasury (once confirmed), will be one of two women in the group of five positions referred to as the “inner Cabinet”. Dating back to 1789 when George Washington first organized principal officers into a Cabinet, this designation includes the Vice President and Secretaries of the Treasury, State, and Defense. Let that sink in. For the first time in the 232 year history of having a Secretary of the Treasury, there will finally be a woman in that role.
The “outer Cabinet”, which includes all the other department secretaries and titles such as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, UN Ambassador, and Director of National Intelligence (DNI), is made up of 20 positions. President Biden has named 10 women as nominees. His pick for DNI, Avril Haines, just confirmed is the first woman to hold that post. For those keeping score at home, that means it took almost 16 years since the position was created in 2005 to even nominate a woman. Of the previous seven presidents, only Obama and Clinton had any women in their inner Cabinets,(they each had two). Presidents Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, G.W. Bush, and Trump had no women in their inner Cabinets and no more than five women in their outer Cabinets. That’s only 20% of the inner and outer cabinet positions combined. If everyone nominated is approved, Biden’s will have 48% women, with 67% of them being women of color.
There is still more to be done on gender representation in government — a woman has still never served as Secretary of Defense or Veterans Affairs or as Chief of Staff to the President, for example — but the Biden Cabinet nominee lineup is significant progress and should be celebrated.