By Linda Tarr-Whelan
President-elect Obama has now moved swiftly to name talented and creative people to Cabinet-level offices and the key members of the White House team. But a nagging thought keeps coming back to me: Why isn’t he naming more women to bring our experience, creativity and energy to address the problems that face us?
Until only recently it looked like Obama’s Cabinet-level composition held only three women. But the announcement that Gov. Bill Richardson will not be taking the Commerce Secretary slot leaves an open position to fill, and one more chance for diversity.
Whereas the presidents of Chile and Spain, also elected as change candidates, appointed women to one-half of their Cabinet seats, Obama has named (including Richardson), 12 men to the 15 Cabinet-level department head positions. Leaving his team very diverse in terms of race and ethnicity — but not in gender. This is a diminished representation from both Bush presidencies and the Clinton administration.
More important than numbers is the talent that is missing and how out-of-step we are compared to the rest of the world in terms of who leads and why it matters. Since 1995 the global standard has been at least one-third women at power tables to revitalize economies and advance democratic participation.
Here we are stuck or moving backwards compared to the rest of the world. The U.S. is ranked 27th on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report and 71st in terms of women’s representation in Congress. Outside of government representation at the current rate increase it will take women 73 years to reach parity on corporate boards.