22 January 2013
SEXISM: The White House is being criticized for a lack of females in the Obama administration.
By Kate Doak, Staff Writer
Issues such as gun control and gay marriage were hot topics during the 2012 Presidential Election. However, no issue caused former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney more grief than his comment on his “binders” of female employees. President Barack Obama also emphasized his appreciation for women and their value to him, explaining how important it was to have intelligent and strong women in the White House. If this is true, though, why is Obama’s administration receiving so much criticism for a lack of female cabinet members?
Since Obama’s reelection, three women have dropped out of the White House staff: Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. The President responded with the nomination of Jack Lew for Secretary of the Treasury, the fourth man to be nominated to a key position by the president.
Representative Charlie Rangel said it was “embarrassing as hell” that the president is being criticized so harshly because of the “lack of diversity.” He continued to say, “We’ve been through all of this with Mitt Romney. And we were very hard on Mitt Romney with his ‘women binder’ and a variety of things. And I kind of think there’s no excuse when it’s the second term.” Rangel basically said that considering all the slack the country gave Romney with his comment, the Obama administration has not been sensitive enough about hiring women and cannot afford to receive a lot of negative criticism from one of its main supporting groups. All this was made worse when photographs were released by the New York Times and other organizations showing the president and his “boy’s club” of all male senior advisors.
The White House is supporting the president’s administrative decisions and is assuring everyone that women make up a large number of office holders at the White House, and it’s true! Around 43 percent of the president’s appointees have been women including Secretary of the Cabinet Kathleen Sebelius, who is in charge of some of the most important pieces of domestic policy. Furthermore, two of the president’s Supreme Court appointees have been women.
This miscommunication is obviously a problem. The last thing the president needs is to be falsely accused of being some sort of sexist and losing one of his largest support groups. Since the people are not always going to investigate everything the president is judged for, the Obama administration needs to be clearer and more obvious about its nominations of women. This is clearly a big issue for people and women who to this day are armed and ready to shoot at anyone who challenges their equality. Therefore, the president needs to advertise his female employees, making sure that when there is some sort of meeting of advisors, women are included. Do not let the media catch that “boy’s club.” Do not make a new “binders full of women” mistake.