By: Devika Kandelwal
August 26 2020
Trump has a lower percentage of women in his administration compared to former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Trump has a lower percentage of women in his administration compared to former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s campaign manager for his 2016 bid, was the first woman to run a winning presidential campaign, but she was not the first woman campaign manager. She was the third, after Susan Estrich (Mike Dukakis, 1988) and Donna Brazile (Al Gore, 2000). But the number of high-ranking women in his administration is not record-breaking or unprecedented. Of the 757 key executive branch nominees put forth by Mr. Trump for positions that require Senate confirmation, about 27.6 percent have been women. Of the 679 that have been confirmed, about 25 percent have been women. That’s a lower percentage compared to some of the previous presidents. 37 percent of the first 512 appointees in the Bill Clinton administration were women, 26 percent of George W. Bush’s first 264 nominations were women, and 43 percent of Barack Obama’s appointments were women at the start of his second term. At the cabinet-level, Mr. Trump has nominated seven women and 32 men. That’s lower than the eight women who served at cabinet-level positions in Mr. Obama’s first term and 10 in his second term, and the nine who served in Mr. Clinton’s second term.