During Women’s History Month, it’s important to recognize not only how far women in the workplace have come but also how far they still need to go in achieving equal opportunities compared to men.
Although it has not received much media attention, it’s worth noting that President Donald J. Trump has named more women to his Cabinet than any Republican President in U.S. history (in both his first and second terms). This is relevant because the private sector can take a cue from the federal government by putting more women into executive-level jobs in corporate America, including as CEOs.
It’s notable that the percentage of women in President Trump’s Cabinet is substantially higher than the female representation of CEOs in corporate America or female federal workers in senior executive management positions (within the career civil service). Included among the women appointed by President Trump is the first White House Chief of Staff in history. Trump has also appointed the first Republican woman to the positions of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and Attorney General.
Women account for about 51% of the U.S. population and 57.5% of the U.S. labor force, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (respectively).
Women balance out Trump’s Cabinet
Even though women’s total employment rate in private companies is higher than their share of the total population, women are still grossly underrepresented at the CEO level. The equivalent White House jobs to CEOs are those in the President’s Cabinet, as most of these appointees run the largest federal agencies.
In addition to the CEO level in the private sector, women are also noticeably underrepresented at the highest levels of the federal workforce, with about 38% of federally employed women being part of the elite Senior Executive Service (SES).
Female feds are underrepresented at the SES level despite persistent and proactive government-wide equal employment opportunity (EEO) programs to help level the playing field.
As I once told the Associated Press when I worked as an EEOC spokesman:
“It’s fair to say that women do fare better in the federal workforce compared to the private sector based on anecdotal evidence, studies, and data, but advancements still need to be made.”
That’s why it’s relevant that women have a substantially higher percentage of jobs in President Trump’s Cabinet compared to their representation of SES jobs in the federal government and CEOs in the private sector. While President Trump has appointed women to 44% of all Cabinet-level jobs, women account for only 35% of senior leadership jobs in Corporate America, including a mere 10.4% of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies.
Who are the women in Trump’s Cabinet?
Any President’s Cabinet is generally comprised of 15 heads of major departments, plus 10 Cabinet-rank positions — some of which vary from one Administration to the next. The latter includes the Vice President, White House Chief of Staff, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, some smaller federal agencies, as well as a few senior White House officials. The list of 11 distinguished women either nominated or approved in President Trump’s Cabinet include:
- The first-ever White House Chief of Staff of either political party, Susie Wiles
- The first Republican Attorney General, Pam Bondi
- The first Republican Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard
Additionally, the other women in Trump’s Cabinet, including Cabinet-level rank (with seats at the table), include:
- Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Secretary of Labor
- Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education
- Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture
- Kelly Loeffler as Administrator of the Small Business Administration
- Elise Stefanik as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
- Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as Surgeon General
- Karoline Leavitt as White House Press Secretary
- Alina Habba as Counselor to the President
Trump previously appointed 10 women to the Cabinet during his first term, which was the highest level of female representation for any Republican President at the time. Now, Trump has eclipsed his own record for Republican presidents. Trump has appointed nearly the same number of women (11) to his Cabinet as President Biden (13).
Are Democrats guilty of gender hypocrisy?
By naming the first woman ever as White House Chief of Staff, some may say that President Trump has exposed the Democrats to gender hypocrisy at some level. Women’s equality has always been one of the Democratic Party’s top political and public policy issues going back 100 years to the suffragette movement. Democrats certainly deserve credit for having always championed the rights of women at home and abroad, from the workplace to nearly every other place.
But have women workers made enough progress toward gender equality in the year 2025? The answer is a resounding no, apart from presidential Cabinet jobs.
It’s unfortunate that the lack of gender parity in employment still exists for women 60 years after the implementation of the landmark Civil Rights Act, Title VII which outlawed sex discrimination in employment (along with other protected categories like race). Additionally, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy. The legislative intent was to pay women the same as men for doing substantially the same or similar work.
Nevertheless, the gender pay gap has never been closed. Women still earn approximately 82% of what men earn, according to the Pew Research Center.
More women needed in executive leadership
Most employment and HR experts emphasize that the most influential leadership examples come from the top of the organization and filter down, from the C-suite to the factory floor. But with fewer women than men in executive-level positions in both the private sector and the federal government, it’s obvious that more progress needs to be made in the ongoing fight for gender equality.
That’s why it’s notable, especially during Women’s History Month, that President Trump’s Cabinet is comprised of 44% women. That’s a significantly higher rate than both the federal and the private sector workforces for similarly situated jobs.
