The New York Times ran a piece yesterday about the male dominated inner circle of Barack Obama. Well, the first two paragraphs were about the "skew" toward men; with a few more mentions here and there, but the remainder of the two-page article justified it with: "He's doing better than Bush." Shocker.
But there is no question about it: Barack Obama, for all his pandering to women during the election, has demonstrated a marked preference to being surrounded by men in the White House. According to the New York Times, "at the Departments of Justice, Defense, Veterans Affairs and Energy, male appointees outnumbered female appointees by about two to one." And in the White House itself, "there are 6 women with top-rank salaries, compared with 14 men."
As I pointed out in an earlier post, this skew toward men, in more areas than hiring, has been going on in Obama's White House since the beginning. It has been known as a "boys club" with a "frat house" atmosphere. Not until the New York Times ran a story "Man's World at the White House?" did Obama actually include a woman in one of his many, many golf outings. According to Jodi Kantor of the Times, "The gesture caused a collective cringe among some women in the West Wing, because it was so transparently triggered by the story."
As things continued to get worse for women staffers in the White House, Obama hosted a women's-only dinner to discuss their grievances. Stunningly, the dinner began with the president looking at his watch and asking "Are there genuine concerns that I need to know about?"
Obama to White House ladies after looking at his watch: "Are there genuine concerns that I need to know about?"
White House Flickr
So this is the guy who warned us of the Republicans' War on Women. Well, at least he has, according to the New York Times: "a number of women in his closest circle of advisers, including Valerie A. Jarrett, a senior adviser, and Mrs. Clinton." Um, after Mrs. Clinton leaves, that would leave a, well, one.
