WUNRN
USA:
President Obama Creates White House Women's Council
Valerie Jarrett will head a new
White House women's council. AP photo by Evan Vucci
President Obama
will sign an executive order tomorrow to establish a White House Council on
Women and Girls, according to an administration official familiar with the
move.
The Council will be chaired by Valerie Jarrett, a senior
adviser and personal friend to the president, and the day-to-day operations
will be run Tina Tchen, who is currently director of the White House Office of
Public Liaison and was a major fundraiser for Obama during the campaign.
"The mission of the Council will be to provide a
coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls to
ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies
and programs impact women and families," reads a memo describing the move
and obtained by The Fix.
The announcement is designed to coincide with the
celebration of national women's history month.
Obama has both personal -- his wife and two daughters --
and political reasons to make this sort of high profile move to ensure that
women's needs are being addressed by his administration.
In 2008, 53 percent of the electorate was female and
Obama carried that group 56 percent to 44 percent over Arizona Sen. John
McCain. That is a significant improvement from Sen. John Kerry's
(D-Mass.) performance in 2004 when women made up 54 percent of the electorate
and the Democrat won them by only three points.
Obama and his team know that if he can maintain his 2008
margin among women in his reelection race in three years time, he will be
sitting pretty. Expect then more symbolic moves like the establishment of the
Council to demonstrate Obama's commitment to women and women's issues.
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