TRANSITION FORUM Recap

In this election year I was a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, but switched my allegiance to Senator Barack Obama when she withdrew. In fact, I made what for me is a significant contribution to his campaign, attend the Women's Leadership for Obama conference in Chicago, put a bumper sticker on my car and a sign in my yard in a red state, urged family and friends to turn out in support for him, volunteered, and have plane tickets to the inauguration. I am thrilled that he not only won the election, but did so with such a decided margin. He'll be going to Washington with a strong mandate. To repeat, I began as a strong supporter of Senator Clinton. While I was never one of those Clinton supporters reluctant to switch their support to Senator Obama, I am disappointed that we lost the opportunity to push the first totally qualified, electable female over the top. And I have fully expected the Obama team to recognize and show that they understand 1) the significance of the 18 million different votes she received in the primaries and 2) that women voters were the deciding factor in this election as we were for the past several presidential elections. I didn't see evidence of that understanding in the Obama campaign. Many Clinton supporters, me included, hoped Senator Obama would have chosen Senator Clinton as his running mate. He didn’t, and the Democrats had an all-male ticket and the Republicans were the party to step out with a balanced ticket. Throughout the presidential debates, Senator Obama mentioned quite a few names of men he will have advising him when he becomes President – yet I never heard him mention a single name of a woman. And it's endearing that a husband would so often publicly state that his wife is his best friend. No doubt Michelle Obama positively influences our President-elect, as did his grandmother and mother. But this is 2008. That is all well and good as far as it goes. But it doesn't go far at all because women are qualified to lead, and should not be relegated to influence leaders through their roles in the home and family. Michelle herself is a strong, accomplished, career professional. I would, frankly, be surprised if more women who supported President-elect Obama did not share my reaction, particularly Ms. Pritzker and Ms. Winfrey who provided huge financial support and credibility that was reported to have drawn millions of voters to his side. The last thing I think of when I think of Oprah Winfrey is a "strong woman behind a man." This new administration, that is so highly identified with change, is not yet signaling they are going to make the most obvious, necessary change: fully utilizing women’s talents, expertise, and leadership skills. Thus far there is little in the way of buzz about potential appointments of women. Again, as you point out, women turned out for him in record numbers and, being the largest voting group, delivered the election. While I agree that women's issues need to be central to his administration's agenda, I believe that President-elect Obama must do much more. He needs to appoint qualified women to his cabinet and as heads of agencies, in proportion to our representation in the population. Via his party leadership, he needs to promote qualified women for national elected office in proportion to our representation in the population. Should he be given the opportunity, he needs to promote qualified women for Supreme Court Justice positions and, even so, we would not yet have proportional representation. The results for women in this election year, as The White House Project reports, were far from euphoric, they were dismal: Although more women than ever will now serve in both houses of Congress, our net gain was only four seats: one in the Senate and three in the House. Even with more women running for winnable seats, we raised the percentage of women in congress from just 16 to 17%, and assured that we would maintain our rank behind 70 other countries when it comes to the number of women in national political leadership. They go on to recommend a top level commission which we can all get behind: Without a top-down effort accompanying grassroots efforts like our own, we will continue at this snail's pace. That's why, as Marie Wilson announced in her latest Huffington Post blog, The White House Project is asking President-elect Barack Obama to appoint a Presidential Commission We have to make our voices loud and clear right now. There was division 6 months ago. Many of us felt that Senator Clinton was the candidate of choice and we certainly felt it was long past the time for a woman to be President of the United States. It didn't turn out that way. We switched our allegiance in full, and history was made in another respect. Women were the primary reason that was possible. Now, the new administration needs to appoint, support, and promote qualified women. If this is about real change, President-elect Obama will lead in that direction. I’m not advocating gender balance in this administration, or in Congress, or in the Supreme Court, or in federal agencies, for the sake of balance. Or for the sake of change. I’m advocating gender balance for the sake of shaping the policies our country needs and making the most informed, wise decisions. We sorely need more women in top positions in U.S. government.