Obama Sets Up Women’s Panel

Less than a year after besting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, President Obama is setting up a new panel to ensure all federal agencies take into account how their policies affect girls and women. “I sign this order not just as a president, but as a son, as a grandson, a husband and a father,” Obama said this afternoon as he signed an executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls. “I saw my grandmother work her way up to become one of the first women bank vice presidents in the state of Hawaii, but I also saw how she hit a glass ceiling—how men no more qualified than she was kept moving up the corporate ladder ahead of her.” The chairwoman of the council will be the president’s friend and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett; Tina Tchen, director of public liaison at the White House, will serve as executive director.