Dangerous Game
Posted by janisstrope on November 17, 2008
Obama met with Hillary Clinton on Thursday, to discuss the possibility of her becoming the Secretary of State. Now, this is the same Hillary that he did not vet *at all* for VP. But now, he is “looking at her” for SoS…
if this is posturing, it is a dangerous game to play. There are many women who feel the best candidate – who happened to be a woman – being skipped over for VP was a slap in the face of all women. Will the “hope and change” guy deliver on the gender make-up of his cabinet?
If he floats her name, then chooses a man, no one should be surprised. But it would be a further insult to the highest profile female leader in this country today. She campaigned tirelessly for him. If this leak of her name is a trial balloon, or meant as a sop to those who were outraged at his choice of Biden, it is patronizing in the extreme.
In a November 7 posting Lynette Long notes that Bush’s cabinet of 15 people contains 4 women (Condoleeza Rica the current SoS, Elain Chao SoLabor, Mary Peters as SoTransportation, and Margaret Spellings, SoEducation. Seven other people also attend cabinet meetings, and one of those is Susan Schwab, U.S. Trade Secretary. That means 23% of those in the meeting are female. Since women comprise the majority of population, and women swung the election for Obama, will he increase that figure? Or will he decrease it?
In his campaign, there were more men in leadership positions than women. He paid women less than the men. I am not hopeful that his new cabinet will reflect anything different, but we really do not know what he will do.
But back in March, had my suspicions…
