A History of the Gender Policy Council

On March 8, 2021, International Women’s Day, Joe Biden signed an executive order that established the Gender Policy Council in the White House in an effort to revitalize women’s issues and ensure their prominence in the administration. Two women will lead this new effort to bring women’s issues to the forefront: Julissa Reynoso, previous ambassador to Uruguay and current chief of staff to first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, alongside Jennifer Klein, senior advisor to Hillary Clinton when she was first lady and secretary of state. This is not the first attempt at creating an equality-oriented position in a presidential administration. The White House has actually had several iterations of this council before, beginning with first lady Hillary Clinton’s efforts.

President Bill Clinton established the President’s Interagency Council on Women (PICW) in August 1995, just before the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The first lady, Hillary Clinton, served as honorary chair alongside then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The prominence of this council gave female representatives and staffers the opportunity to approach their male counterparts and advocate for policies that would benefit women, such as wage equity, universal child care, and paid family leave. Two years later, in 1997, the first lady hosted the first White House conference on child care.

This conference gave the Clinton administration the opportunity to tout their commitment to investing in child care, a number that increased by nearly 70% from 1993 to 1997. A law passed in 1996 increased funding for child care by $4 billion over 6 years to assist low-income working families and parents getting off of welfare. Funding for Head Start, federally-funded child care for low-income communities, increased by 43%. These facts and figures serve to underscore the message that the Clintons, particularly Hillary Clinton, aimed to send: women’s issues should be national issues. It is not just female representatives, staffers, or officials who can tackle expansions in child care, paid family leave, or wage equity. Rather, it is the responsibility of the country’s legislative body, regardless of gender identity, to expand opportunities for women.

The introduction of this Council continued to have a profound impact in the administrations of Clinton’s successors, as demonstrated by the continuing legacy of the Gender Policy Council in present day. However, the subsequent Bush administration disbanded the PICW, leaving much of its work to be done by first lady Laura Bush’s office and the Office of Global Women’s Issues.

Doing this reinforces the idea that only women should care about child care or paid family leave, when, in reality, these policies affect the American economy as a whole. When families can send their children to adequate, affordable child care facilities, they increase their income as they move from a single-earner to a dual-earner household. Introducing affordable child care has the potential to create local and state economic growth because of the increase in labor. Moreover, it reduces the burden on women, who are twice as likely to provide primary care for children, though they are the breadwinner or co-breadwinner in two-thirds of American households.

President Barack Obama’s administration created a new White House Council on Women and Girls Leadership in 2009, building off the foundations of the PICW. The Council, chaired by Valerie Jarrett and led by Tina Tchen, involved all cabinet secretaries in their work since creating an entirely new cabinet-level position or a “gender ambassador” would keep issues of equality within one specific person when, in actuality, they wanted all cabinet secretaries and offices to integrate provisions that advocate for women. For example, they encouraged the Transportation Department to provide additional trainings for bus drivers to watch for signs of sex trafficking.

Though Jarrett and Tchen were able to integrate women’s issues into American life through the work of cabinet secretaries, they also held other positions within the administration. Jarrett was Senior Adviser to President Obama, and Tchen was also the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Thus, there was only so much that they could do during their time there. In addition, they were not in a policymaking capacity, but, rather, focused on advising other offices.

With the advent of President Donald Trump’s administration, the Council went dormant in 2017. At first, it appeared as though his daughter Ivanka Trump or Senior Adviser Kellyanne Conway would head the office, but it soon disappeared into the woodwork. In 2019, Ivanka Trump launched a program that would empower women in the workplace by setting up a $50 million fund for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She aimed to increase foreign female employment and entrepreneurship. In addition, she publicly advocated for child care and paid leave reforms.

Unfortunately, the efforts of one woman within a vast administration cannot create the divisive changes necessary for this issue. Without the backing of a substantial presidential cabinet or office, there was no requirement for any of her projects to be completed, so very little emerged from these endeavors.

Now, in 2021, the Biden administration has re-introduced the Gender Policy Council to the White House, though there are some significant differences from its previous versions. For one, there are four full-time staff members, as opposed to the heads of other offices or departments in the White House. These individuals report to the President, indicating the importance placed upon this office. The Council also includes other cabinet secretaries, who are each required to participate in the Council as they discuss gender biases in issues like racial equity, national security, health care, and economics. Cabinet secretaries are also required to designate a senior official to act as a liaison between the Gender Policy Council and their office. All of these requirements serve to keep this Council active and relevant during and after the Biden administration.

To accomplish their lofty goal of gender equality in a time when women are disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gender Policy Council has a long road ahead of them. However, they have witnessed the failures during previous administrations and will hopefully create and enforce policies that tangibly affect women. The responsibility for the advancement of affordable child care and paid family leave should not rest on the shoulders of women because they do not simply affect women. Economic progression relies on the collective efforts of all to encourage equity.