More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Kristen Clarke, Biden’s nominee to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, is tied up in a needlessly long confirmation process.
Feminist organizations have united to call for Senate confirmation of Kristen Clarke for DOJ, saying her “nomination comes at a crucial time.”
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.
President Biden’s Cabinet features gender parity for the first time. But parity is not equality, and there are still Cabinet glass ceilings women have yet to shatter.
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.
For the Biden administration’s female appointments to succeed, they will need the public to call out when they see sexist coverage of women leaders. After all, it takes guts for women to agree to live a public life.
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.
The U.S. Delegation to CSW65 is a historic turning point in U.S. political leadership and marks the first time the U.S. will be represented at the session at the White House level, and the first time two women of color have co-led the delegation: Vice President Kamala Harris and U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Plus, meet the historic eight non-government advisors joining the U.S. Delegation who are changing the game.
As conservatives have worked for decades to take over the courts with judges who eschew civil rights in favor of protecting the wealthy and powerful, the courts cannot be counted upon to always protect women’s rights, from their reproductive freedom to their personal safety.
The dearth of women in political leadership positions, is not so much a problem with the pipeline, but a problem with promoting, hiring and nominating women to leadership positions at the same rates as men.
Fortunately it is a problem which can in large part be corrected by our already elected officials.
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.