Washington: Women are adequately represented in the Obama administration including those in the top Cabinet level positions, other senior administrative and judiciary positions, the White House said on Wednesday.
"I think that the record speaks for itself," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters in response to reports that women are not adequately represented in the Obama administration.
"The President believes that diversity is important because having diversity increases the excellence of the pool of advisors around you, the pool of the staff that you have here. I think that`s been demonstrated by the degree of talent that he has around him now and has had around him in the first term, and I think it will be true in the second term," Carney said.
"Women are well represented in the President`s senior staff here. Two of the three Deputy Chiefs of Staff are women. The White House Counsel is a woman. A woman runs Homeland Security for this country, Secretary (Janet) Napolitano. The Cabinet Secretary in charge of the most important piece of domestic policy legislation in a generation is a woman, Kathleen Sebelius," he said.
Referring to a New York Times story, the spokesman said White House staff here is 50/50 in its analysis.
"And as I said, including Valerie Jarrett, women serve in key policy roles here within the White House as they do throughout the administration... This President is committed to diversity. And look at the record; it is a vast improvement," Carney said, adding that these stories are in reaction to a couple of appointments.
"I think it would be useful to wait and make judgments about this issue after the President has made the totality of appointments that he will make in the transition to a second term," he observed.
"When it comes to judges, 47 percent of President Obama`s confirmed judges -- and we have an issue with confirmation here with Senate as you know -- but the 47 percent of those who have been confirmed have been women compared to 22 percent for president George W Bush and 29 percent for president (Bill) Clinton. So I think the record here speaks for itself," Carney said.
PTI
