Obama’s White House Is Woman and Girl Crazy—in a Good Way

Posted on Sep 14, 2009

White House / Pete Souza

President Obama congratulates his first appointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She is only the third woman to sit on the highest bench in the land.

From the creation of the White House Council on Women and Girls to the State Department’s global focus on women’s rights, President Obama is scoring points with feminists who worked against him in the primaries.

It’s about time America’s ladies, who account for more than 60 percent of the voters, got some respect. With such a majority, they should be feared and worshiped.

Instead, women hold only 17 of the Senate’s 100 seats, for a total of 37 since 1789. —PS

USA Today via ABC News:

A new White House Council on Women and Girls is assessing every government agency to see if its programs do enough to benefit women. The first senior adviser on domestic violence and the first ambassador for women’s issues around the globe are developing programs to prevent violence again women at home and abroad. First lady Michelle Obama is highlighting women’s achievements, helping families and pushing girls to succeed.

The prospect of a woman in the Oval Office ended more than a year ago when Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded the Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama. But the women’s groups who backed Clinton for president now say the man who vanquished her is running an administration more focused on women’s issues and equality than any before it.

“This has been the most open White House to women’s issues and groups,” says Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal, a women’s rights activist for four decades. “In the first six months, we have been brought in more than ever before. … It’s very impressive.”

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