NATIONAL POLITICS & POLICY | Obama To Create White House Panel on Women's Issues
[March 11, 2009]

President Obama on Wednesday plans to sign an executive order forming a White House Council on Women and Girls, Politico reports. "The mission of the council will be to provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls and to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families," a White House official said. Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett will chair the panel, and Tina Tchen -- head of the Office of Public Liaison at the White House -- will serve as its executive director (Gerstein, Politico, 3/10).

When Obama signs the executive order, the audience will include "national women's organizations and community groups, professional women and a bipartisan group of congressional leaders," according to the White House. The administration added that the council will include "heads (or their senior-level designees) of: the Cabinet agencies, certain other non-Cabinet agencies, and other Executive branch departments" and agencies (Sweet, "The Scoop From Washington," Chicago Sun-Times, 3/10).

More than 50 women's groups in December 2008 sent a letter to Obama and Vice President Biden asking them to create a Cabinet-level bureau to address women's issues. The new council does not have Cabinet rank and is not a permanent office with a full-time staff, according to Politico. Susan Scanlan of the National Council of Women's Organizations, who signed the December 2008 letter, said that she is happy with Obama's action so far. "We've been holding back to see what the administration was going to do," she said, adding, "Tina Tchen, who has the women's portfolio in our office, has been most reassuring. Every time we ask for a meeting, she's there. Every time we have an issue, she covers it" (Politico, 3/10).

The panel was announced to coincide with national women's history month. According to the Washington Post's "The Fix," Obama has both "personal" and "political reasons to make this sort of high-profile move to ensure that women's needs are being addressed by his administration." Women comprised 53% of the electorate in 2008, and Obama carried women 56% to 44% over Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) (Cillizza, "The Fix," Washington Post, 3/10).





The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

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