Kamala Harris. Janet Yellen. Deb Haaland. Gina Raimondo. Marcia Fudge. Jennifer Granholm.
They’re making history as members of the largest group of women ever to serve on a presidential Cabinet. Haaland and Yellen are the first women in their positions, and Haaland is also the first Native American Cabinet secretary.
President Biden has appointed five additional women to Cabinet-level positions, including Cecilia Rouse as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors and Isabel Guzman as Small Business Administrator. Four of these five are Black, Asian American, or Latina. In total, women comprise nearly half of Biden’s Cabinet.
Women have been fighting for equality in this country for over a century — from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, to the Women’s Strike of 1970, to the Women’s March in 2017. For women who are Black American, Asian American, or Native American, the fight has been even harder.
Today, the women of President Biden’s Cabinet stand on the shoulders of these moments and the trailblazing women who have come before, including Patricia Roberts Harris, the first Black woman to hold a position as Cabinet secretary (1977); Elaine Chao, the first Asian American woman to earn the distinction (2001); and Hilda Solis, the first Latina Cabinet secretary (2009).
The women of Biden’s Cabinet wield enormous influence on how best to connect good governance with today’s social movements. Americans deserve a responsive government, one that works to enfranchise those who have been shut out of our democracy, particularly people and communities in the crosshairs of climate change and toxic pollution, those who are routinely denied economic opportunity, and those whose workplaces are unsafe or unhealthy.
In that vein, the Center for Progressive Reform’s Policy for A Just America initiative envisions a government that works for all people and our planet. To create a sustainable future, America needs an energy revolution that is clean, equitable, and just. To achieve that vision, Energy Secretary Granholm must make energy justice a focus of her energy policy agenda.
Fortunately, CPR Member Scholar on leave Shalanda Baker has also been tapped by the Biden administration to serve in the Department of Energy. As deputy director for energy justice and the secretary’s advisor on equity, she has the opportunity to work with Granholm to develop an energy efficiency program for low-income communities, incentivize clean energy job training programs in disenfranchised communities, and prioritize a plethora of projects and research that are behind schedule.
Following the example of Hazel O’Leary — the first woman and first Black person to become Secretary of Energy — Granholm should push the department in the direction of innovation, investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy research, both of which were pillars of O’Leary’s tenure in the Clinton administration.
Granholm will work closely with Interior Secretary Haaland, whose agency oversees the country’s energy projects on public lands. Haaland has inherited an agency that the Trump administration systematically tried to dismantle and made as industry-friendly as possible — shrinking national monuments, gutting endangered species protections, throwing open the doors to fossil fuel extraction, and more.
Though Haaland faces significant challenges, she can begin to reverse harmful policies and ensure our public lands are conserved and used in ways that benefit us all. She should prioritize restoring Obama-era protections repealed by Trump and restore curbs and limitations on harmful pollutants that threaten public and environmental health. Public protections, including safe drinking water for all and worker health amid climate change, are integral to building a just America.
The women of President Biden’s Cabinet bring a depth of expertise and reflect the diversity of lived experiences in our country. They are poised to define an era of governance that restores public trust, reworks democratic processes, and knocks down barriers to justice and equity while creating policies that work for everyone.
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Maggie Dewane | March 22, 2021
Women comprise nearly half of Biden’s Cabinet and they are making history as the largest group of women ever to serve on a presidential Cabinet. Here are some of their priorities while in office.
Darya Minovi, Katlyn Schmitt | March 22, 2021
Last week, a Maryland circuit court ruled that the state must regulate and limit ammonia pollution from industrial poultry operations. This landmark decision takes an important step toward protecting the environment and public health in the Old Line State and could spur similar action in other states.
Maggie Dewane, Sarah Krakoff | March 19, 2021
To commemorate Women’s History Month, we’re interviewing women at the Center for Progressive Reform about how they’re building a more just America. This week, we're speaking with Member Scholar Sarah Krakoff.
Karen Sokol | March 15, 2021
A week after taking office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order “on tackling the climate crisis” that includes important measures to address the crisis comprehensively and equitably. Specifically, the order directs the federal government to take a “whole of government” approach to the climate crisis that pursues economic security, ensures environmental justice, and empowers workers. The beginning of such a plan is promising, particularly after four years under an administration that wiped the word “climate” from government websites, rolled back the Obama administration’s steps to address the crisis, and made fossil fuel production a centerpiece of its agenda. But it’s just that — a promising beginning. And it’s already under assault.
Gilonne d'Origny, Maggie Dewane | March 12, 2021
To commemorate Women’s History Month, we’re interviewing women at the Center for Progressive Reform about how they’re building a more just America. This week we spoke to Gilonne d'Origny.
Alejandro Camacho, Melissa Kelly | March 9, 2021
Notwithstanding the Freedom of Information Act's primary goal of promoting transparency in government decision-making, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled by a 7-to-2 vote that the public policy of facilitating agency candor in exercising its expertise in preliminary agency deliberations can outweigh such transparency and accountability concerns. Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered the 11-page opinion, her first majority opinion since joining the court in October. It was a natural debut given that the case, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club, was the first oral argument that Barrett heard after joining the bench.
Karen Sokol, Robert Verchick | March 9, 2021
In the United States, many people think the world's worst human rights abuses take place elsewhere. Unless you are among those in the United States who are subjected to such mistreatment. On March 2, human rights experts called the world's attention to some of the most egregious and systematic human rights violations perpetuated here in the United States — and in particular in our neck of the woods in southeast Louisiana. International human rights experts condemned long-standing environmental racism in "Cancer Alley" — a heavily industrialized and polluted corridor along the Lower Mississippi River — and said it must end.
Maggie Dewane | March 8, 2021
International Women’s Day celebrates the changes made by women and calls for action to accelerate women’s equality. This year, International Women’s Day notes that a challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change.
Daniel Farber | March 8, 2021
The COVID pandemic has provided a vivid picture of what happens when ill-prepared governments are suddenly hit with huge responsibilities. Underfunded state and local public health agencies were overwhelmed, while governors and local officials found themselves struggling to obtain and distribute vital supplies, from respirators to vaccines. Efforts to accelerate the transition away from carbon, such as a green stimulus, may run into similar problems if we neglect the agencies that will have to implement policies.