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SNIP:
By Amy Sullivan | @sullivanamy | September 21, 2011 | 223inShare.14 Log In with
Nearly every professional woman has had the experience of saying something in a meeting, receiving no response, and then listening as a male colleague offers the same thought or suggestion minutes later to great acclaim. The first time it happens, she feels slightly foolish and is a little unsettled. Did I say that out loud or just in my head? Maybe he made the point better than I did. The second time it happens, she gets frustrated. The third time, she gets angry.
Look at the senior women meeting with Obama in this White House photo at a dinner they called to discuss their invisibility. Look at their faces and body language. They are pissed off.
Coverage in the Washington Post and a new book by Ron Suskind has focused attention on the frustration of Obamas female advisers. But the problem has been obvious almost since Obama took office. And while the explanations so far have blamed members of the mostly-departed boys clubRobert Gibbs, Rahm EmanuelObama himself is responsible for a work atmosphere that marginalizes and ignores women.
(MORE: What Suskinds Confidence Men Says About Obamaand America)
The first time I noticed something was awry, I was flipping through the White House Flickr album from Obamas first 100 days in office. About halfway through, I realized something was missing. Shot after shot showed Oval Office meetings filled with men in dark suits. But apart from occasional appearances by Hillary Clinton and Valerie Jarrettand one photo of an Oval Office meeting that included Jarrett and several other female adviserswomen were mostly absent from the workplace shots.
I knew the problem wasnt a lack of women on staff at the White House. A 2009 analysis of White House salary data did find that while women outnumbered men in the lowest salary brackets, there were only 58 women in the 142 highest senior staff positions at the Obama White House. But those 58 were still a huge leap over the 32 highly-paid women in George W. Bushs White House in 2007. Even so, it didnt matter how many senior women were on staff if they werent in the room with the boss when it mattered. There, a comparison with Bushs White House is also instructive. Valerie Jarrett is obviously a key member of Obamas inner circle, but her role is largely a personal one, to protect Obamas brand. For the most part, she does not fill the same position of political or policy guru that Karen Hughes and Condi Rice respectively did in Bushs brain trust.
Read more: The White House Boys’ Club: President Obama Has a Woman Problem | Swampland | TIME.com
SNIP:
By Amy Sullivan | @sullivanamy | September 21, 2011 | 223inShare.14 Log In with
Nearly every professional woman has had the experience of saying something in a meeting, receiving no response, and then listening as a male colleague offers the same thought or suggestion minutes later to great acclaim. The first time it happens, she feels slightly foolish and is a little unsettled. Did I say that out loud or just in my head? Maybe he made the point better than I did. The second time it happens, she gets frustrated. The third time, she gets angry.
Look at the senior women meeting with Obama in this White House photo at a dinner they called to discuss their invisibility. Look at their faces and body language. They are pissed off.
Coverage in the Washington Post and a new book by Ron Suskind has focused attention on the frustration of Obamas female advisers. But the problem has been obvious almost since Obama took office. And while the explanations so far have blamed members of the mostly-departed boys clubRobert Gibbs, Rahm EmanuelObama himself is responsible for a work atmosphere that marginalizes and ignores women.
(MORE: What Suskinds Confidence Men Says About Obamaand America)
The first time I noticed something was awry, I was flipping through the White House Flickr album from Obamas first 100 days in office. About halfway through, I realized something was missing. Shot after shot showed Oval Office meetings filled with men in dark suits. But apart from occasional appearances by Hillary Clinton and Valerie Jarrettand one photo of an Oval Office meeting that included Jarrett and several other female adviserswomen were mostly absent from the workplace shots.
I knew the problem wasnt a lack of women on staff at the White House. A 2009 analysis of White House salary data did find that while women outnumbered men in the lowest salary brackets, there were only 58 women in the 142 highest senior staff positions at the Obama White House. But those 58 were still a huge leap over the 32 highly-paid women in George W. Bushs White House in 2007. Even so, it didnt matter how many senior women were on staff if they werent in the room with the boss when it mattered. There, a comparison with Bushs White House is also instructive. Valerie Jarrett is obviously a key member of Obamas inner circle, but her role is largely a personal one, to protect Obamas brand. For the most part, she does not fill the same position of political or policy guru that Karen Hughes and Condi Rice respectively did in Bushs brain trust.
Read more: The White House Boys’ Club: President Obama Has a Woman Problem | Swampland | TIME.com
