More Than A Magazine, A Movement
President Joe Biden’s cabinet is the most diverse in history—including the first Native American secretary of the interior; first Latino homeland security chief; first openly gay Cabinet member and more. In two departments—Treasury and Intelligence—there has never been a woman in charge … until now. Altogether, Biden appointed 12 women in his Cabinet, the most ever.
To celebrate the historic number of women and women of color in Biden’s Cabinet, media thought leader Pat Mitchell is kicking off a new series: “Table for 12,” which will appear on PatMitchellMedia.com—and be republished here at Ms.
A deep dive into the work Vice President Kamala Harris is doing at the table—nearly 100 days into this administration
Biden has said, “There’s not a single decision I’ve made yet” about his administration that he hasn’t consulted with Harris on first.
On March 22, the Senate voted 63-37 to confirm Shalanda Young as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. She is currently acting director of the department.
If Young is made director of the OMB, she would be the first Black woman in charge of the agency.
On March 16, the Senate confirmed Isabella Casillas Guzman, President Biden’s pick to lead the Small Business Administration (SBA), an agency that has seen its profile grow enormously in response to the pandemic. She is the first Latina to lead the agency and the only Latina in Biden’s diverse Cabinet.
“Now more than ever, our small businesses need us,” Guzman said.
Katherine Tai is the only Asian American woman appointed to a Cabinet-level position under Biden and is the first woman of color to serve as the U.S. trade representative in its 60-year history.
Gina Raimondo was sworn in March 3 as the nation’s new commerce secretary by Vice President Kamala Harris after a bipartisan vote of 84-15 in the Senate. In introducing her as his pick for Secretary of Commerce, President Biden called her “one of the most effective and forward-thinking governors” in America.
The Senate confirmed Cecilia Rouse as chair of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers—the first Black leader of CEA and the fourth woman in 75 years.
“I went into economics because I wanted to use the tools of economics to generate positive social change,” Rouse said. “I love asking questions and turning to data to use evidence to understand the world, and challenge my own understanding of it.”
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm will be getting to work immediately, helping President Biden carry out his ambitious green energy plan, which proposes to spend $2 trillion over four years on clean energy projects and end carbon emissions from power plants by 2035.
When President Biden announced Linda Thomas-Greenfield as his pick for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, he lauded her as a “seasoned and distinguished diplomat with 35 years in the foreign service who never forgot where she came from growing up in segregated Louisiana.”
On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Thomas-Greenfield by a vote of 78-20, marking a return to a career of foreign service where she excels.
Rep. Marcia Fudge, 58, says it is “an honor and a privilege” to be asked to join President Biden’s Cabinet. If confirmed, Fudge will follow in the footsteps of her Delta sorority sister, Patricia Roberts Harris, the first Black woman to lead HUD under the Carter administration.
If confirmed, Deb Haaland will become the nation’s most powerful Native American leader in our 243-year history. She will lead the Department of the Interior, the very department “whose centuries of broken promises and benign neglect has contributed to the slow erosion of Indigenous culture.”