HRC Blog

Talk about being on the frontlines: Mary Snider, co-chair of HRC's Board of Directors, was among the group of distinguished women that witnessed President Obama sign an Executive Order on Wednesday to create the White House Council on Women and Girls.  Mary sent us this account today on her visit to the White House's East Room for the signing: On Wednesday, I had the honor of going to the White House and attending the signing of the Executive Order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls. The council is designed to provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronting women and girls, and to ensure that all cabinet and cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families. Led by Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the President, it will be composed of the heads of every Cabinet and Cabinet-level agency, and a number of those members were in attendance. During its first year, the council will work on improving women's economic security, evaluating and developing public policy that is family-friendly, finding new ways to prevent violence against women, and improving women's health care. A diverse group of women attended the signing, including civil rights icon Dorothy Height, WNBA star Lisa Leslie, Emily’s List Founder Ellen Malcolm. One of the highlights was the Presidents recognition of Dr. Nina Fedoroff, a biotechnology and life science pioneer - who won the National Medal of Science in 2006 and Sergeant Major Michele Jones, who was the Army's highest -ranking enlisted woman at the time of her retirement. President Obama described the mission of the Council as fulfilling the promise of democracy for all of our people – and the Obama Administration made it clear that includes lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.  As someone who has experienced job discrimination first hand, it was thrilling to be at the White House for the signing.  I was also very proud to represent HRC- as co-chair of the HRC Board of Directors- and attend with Joan Garry (who brought  her 19 year old daughter – there’s a Spring Break trip! ); Leslie Calman, executive director of the Mautner Project and Mara Keisling, executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality.  Why is the White House Council on Women and Girls important and important to GLBT Americans? Women make up more than half of our population, but just 17 percent of our Congress, 49 percent of the workforce, but only 3 percent of our Fortune 500 CEOs. Lesbian, bisexual and transgender women face even greater obstacles as we are not protected by most nondiscrimination laws. Each of the agencies will take into account the needs of women and girls in the policies they draft and the legislation they support.  Given the make-up of the Council, we are assured that there will be discussions with Cabinet officials and heads of agencies on important issues like family medical leave, flex time, affordable child care. President Obama and his Administration intend to do build on the work begun with the signing Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, to ensure that all women can get paid what they deserve. As President Obama said in his comments:

In the end, while many of the challenges women and girls face are new, the work of this Council is not -- it's been with us for generations.  Frances Perkins, who was President Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, and the first woman to serve in the Cabinet -- a great hero of the New Deal -- described it well when she said, "I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the rights of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats.