 | | President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his nominee for U.N. ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press |
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“Experience and leadership, fresh thinking and perspective.” |
— President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. describing his cabinet picks |
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. introduced six cabinet picks on Tuesday who represent significant firsts and reflect Mr. Biden’s campaign pledge to put together a diverse administration that “looks like” the country. |
“America is back, ready to lead the world,” Mr. Biden said in a speech introducing his nominees, all of whom would bring “experience and leadership, fresh thinking and perspective” to the highest levels of the executive branch. |
Of Mr. Biden’s six picks, two are women and two are people of color. In the coming days, Mr. Biden is expected to make some more groundbreaking nominations to key positions that could make his cabinet one of the most diverse in history. |
 | | Avril Haines, the nominee for director of national intelligence.Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press |
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Though it is still early to predict whether Mr. Biden’s full cabinet will achieve gender and racial parity, “so far, we’re cautiously optimistic,” said Mark Hanis, a co-founder of the nonprofit group Inclusive America, which tracks and advocates for diversity in government positions. |
The two previous administrations, according to data from Mr. Hanis’s organization, failed to achieve gender or racial parity in their cabinets. In President Barack Obama’s cabinet, just 8 percent of the members were female and 12 percent were nonwhite. In President Trump’s cabinet, 4 percent of the members were female and 4 percent were nonwhite. |
Outside Mr. Biden’s cabinet picks, the majority of his transition team and more than half of the members of his 14-member senior White House staff are female. |
But Mr. Biden’s Covid Task Force falls behind on inclusion, Mr. Hanis noted, pointing out that while the team has achieved racial parity, it is still predominantly male. |
“The conversation in the larger American public about racial justice and diversity, equity and inclusion is much more vibrant than it ever has been,” added Mr. Hanis, who also served as a national security adviser to Mr. Biden when he was vice president. |
“The demands on Biden are therefore far higher,” he said. |
 | | Janet Yellen, Mr. Biden’s likely nominee for Treasury secretary, in California in January.Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times |
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- Avril Haines, an expert in international law who has worked for the Obama and Bush administrations, is nominated to become the country’s first female director of national intelligence.
- Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a 35-year veteran of the Foreign Service who has served in diplomatic posts around the world, is nominated for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
- Alejandro Mayorkas is nominated to head the Department of Homeland Security, potentially making him the first Latino and the first immigrant to lead the agency responsible for most of the nation’s policies on immigration.
- Janet Yellen, the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve, is likely to be nominated for Treasury secretary. If she is confirmed, that would make her the first woman to hold that post in the Treasury Department’s 231-year history.
- Michèle Flourney, who has held key roles in the Pentagon in the Clinton administration and in Mr. Obama’s Defense Department, is rumored to be the nominee for defense secretary, potentially becoming the first woman to lead the Pentagon.
- Antony Blinken, former deputy secretary of state under Mr. Obama and a close foreign policy adviser to the president-elect, is nominated for secretary of state.
- Jake Sullivan, who served as the head of policy planning at the State Department under Hillary Clinton, is nominated for national security adviser.
- John Kerry, the former secretary of state who was a chief negotiator for the United States on the Paris climate change accord, will take on the newly created role of international climate envoy.
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Here are four articles from The Times you may have missed. |
 | | Lynn Conway speaking at the University of Michigan in 2018.Daryl Marshke/University of Michigan |
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- “It was so unexpected. It was stunning.” Lynn Conway, one of IBM’s most promising young computer engineers, was fired in 1968 after confiding to her supervisors that she was transgender. More than 50 years later, IBM apologized and gave her a lifetime achievement award for her “pioneering work.” [Read the story]
- “Being able to access period products is fundamental to equality and dignity.” Scotland, in an attempt to end “period poverty,” became the first country to make access to tampons and sanitary pads free in schools, colleges, universities and all other public buildings. [Read the story]
- “Textbook companies look to Texas to set their standards for the rest of the country.” For the first time since 1997, Texas’ education board changed its sex education standards for middle school students, expanding the teaching of birth control methods beyond abstinence only. [Read the story]
- “If there’s one person who can wrangle an alpha male, it’s Jane Goodall.” On this episode of “Sway,” 60 years since Dr. Goodall’s first excursion to observe primates in Africa, she reveals how she rose to celebrity status, how she uses her platform to persuade world leaders and which politicians (like Mr. Trump) she wouldn’t even bother trying to persuade. [Listen to the podcast]
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In Her Words is written by Alisha Haridasani Gupta and edited by Francesca Donner. Our art director is Catherine Gilmore-Barnes, and our photo editor is Sandra Stevenson. |
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