Federal Executive

Current and historical fact sheets, graphics, research reports, and other information about women serving in office.

Vice President

Vice President Kamala Harris smiles in black suit jacket and white top with black dots

Kamala Harris (D)
Kamala Harris became the first woman to hold the office of Vice President on January 20, 2021. She is also the first woman of color, the first Black person, and the first South Asian person elected to this office. Previously, Vice President Harris served in the U.S. Senate as well as California’s Attorney General.

Facts

Women Appointed to Presidential Cabinets
Fact sheet that provides information on current and past women presidential cabinet and cabinet-level officials, including historical milestones, counts by presidential administration, total counts by position, and biographical information.

High-Level Presidential Appointments in the Biden-Harris Administration
List of women currently in cabinet or cabinet-level positions and women currently serving in high-level staff positions in the Executive Office of the President.

Women Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates
Fact sheet on all women who have run for U.S. president and vice president.

Aiming High: Women Pursuing the Presidency
A Google Cultural Institute exhibit, curated by CAWP, conveying the history of American women seeking the nation's highest office in images and video. 

Research

  • “Reflections on Gender and Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign: The Good, the Bad, and the Misogynic

    by Susan J. Carroll
    Politics & Gender 2009, Volume 5 (March)

    Reflecting on the 2008 presidential election, Carroll examines the role that gender stereotypes seem to have played in key decisions made by the Clinton campaign, as well as the power and sexism that the media exhibited in their coverage of the Democratic race. 

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Federal Executive
  • She's the Candidate! A Woman for President

    by Ruth B. Mandel
    Book chapter in Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change, Eds. Barbara Kellerman and Deborah L. Rhode 
    Jossey-Bass J-B Warren Bennis Series, 2007

    Women and Leadership brings together in one comprehensive volume preeminent scholars from a range of disciplines to address the challenges involving women and leadership. The experts explore when and how women exercise power and what stands in their way, including current thinking on the perils of stereotypes, the importance of leadership style, gender differences in the decision to seek leadership roles, lessons from women leaders, “opt out” patterns and the need for flexible career paths, global inequalities and initiatives, and strategies that get women to the top. Order the book.

    Book Chapter
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Federal Executive
  • Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics, 1st Edition

    Eds. Susan J. Carroll, CAWP, Rutgers University and Richard L. Fox, Union College, New York
    Cambridge University Press, 2005 First Edition, 240 pages 

    Gender and Elections offers a systematic, lively, multi-faceted account of the role of gender in the electoral process through the 2004 elections. This volume strikes a balance between highlighting the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2004 elections and providing a more long-term, in-depth analysis of the ways that gender has helped shape the contours and outcomes of electoral politics in the United States. Individual chapters demonstrate the importance of gender in understanding and interpreting presidential elections, voter participation and turnout, voting choices, congressional elections, the

    Book
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Political Parties
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Gender and Race/Ethnicity
    Women Voters and the Gender Gap
    State Legislature
    Statewide Executive
    Congress
    Federal Executive
  • ‘She Brought Only a Skirt:’ Gender Bias in Newspaper Coverage of Elizabeth Dole’s Campaign for the Republican Nomination

    by Caroline Heldman , Susan J. Carroll & Stephanie Olson
    Political Communication 22:3 (2005)

    This article examines differences in print media coverage of Elizabeth Dole and five other Republican contenders for the presidential nomination in 1999. Findings indicate that Dole received a differential amount and type of print media coverage that was decidedly gendered and may have hindered her candidacy. Journalists also repeatedly framed Dole as the “first woman” to be a serious presidential candidate and focused on her gender more than any other aspect of her candidacy, suggesting implicitly, if not explicitly, that she was a novelty in the race rather than a strong contender with a good chance of winning.

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Federal Executive
  • Women Appointed to the Carter Administration: A Comparison with Men

    by Susan J. Caroll and Barbara Geiger-Parker
    Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1983, 88 pages

    This first-ever profile of women who have held high-level appointive offices at the federal level analyzes data about all the women and a sample of the men who served in high-level appointed positions under President Jimmy Carter. Women who served in selected positions on the president's and vice-president's staffs are also included.

    Report
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Women Political Appointees
    Federal Executive