27 per cent of Trump appointees are women
NEW YORK Women have been named to 27 per cent of the appointed roles filled by President Donald Trump so far, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of records newly released by the U.S. government.
That number falls far short of overall representation in the U.S. labour force, where women account for 47 per cent.
The gender breakdown of Trump’s first wave of appointees was based on a list of appointee names obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by ProPublica. The non-profit publication sent requests to the Office of Personnel Management and some two dozen federal agencies, though only six responded.
The ProPublica list includes 436 people, mostly hired in late January, and doesn’t include appointees who require Senate confirmation. The White Houses reportedly expected to appoint about 520 employees during a transitional period.
Bloomberg News determined gender based on an analysis of names, cross referenced with publicly available profiles on websites such as LinkedIn. Because each individual did not confirm his or her gender, the tally is subject to a small margin of error. Three of the employees, all within the Consumer Product Safety Commission, were first appointed by former president Barack Obama; two others on the list have already left their roles. There is evident gender disparity in the roster of Trump appointees. The most lopsided departments included Commerce, Treasury, and Energy — where fewer than 15 per cent of the appointees were women.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to questions about the gender makeup of its early hires in federal agencies. The White House itself has “nearly the same number of male and female employees, with the employee ratio around the same as the national average,” a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
Trump’s cabinet, among the most visible roles in any administration, includes four women out of 24 positions.
As president, Obama named seven women to his first cabinet.
The Obama administration drew criticism at times for the perception that the atmosphere at the White House was challenging for women. Anita Dunn, a one-time White House communications director in the Obama administration, complained of a boys’ club atmosphere.