President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team recently announced an all-woman slate of top White House communications aides. While it will be the first time that women hold all the top, first-announced White House communications positions, there’s ample precedent for women superseding men in the top communications shop roles.
Current White House press secretary for President Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, expressed her displeasure with the numerous notations of the gender milestone in news coverage about Biden’s communications staff picks in a tweet on Sunday night.
“President @realDonaldTrump already has an ALL FEMALE Senior White House Press Team,” she tweeted in response to a Washington Post headline.
Alyssa Farah, director of strategic communications, echoed the frustration. “Celebrating women’s advancement shd [sic] be nonpartisan,” she tweeted.
McEnany is correct in that women have long held top communications roles over the last three decades, particularly in the Trump and Obama administrations. She and Farah currently lead the White House press team, Katie Miller is communications director for Vice President Mike Pence, and other women are deputies on the communications staff.
However, a number of men remain the core of the White House press shop. Brian Morgenstern is deputy White House press secretary, and before him, Hogan Gidley and Raj Shah held the post. Judd Deere is a special assistant to the president and deputy press secretary and handles many day-to-day media inquiries. Ben Williamson, who joined the White House when Mark Meadows became chief of staff and previously worked in his congressional office, is a senior adviser for communications.
In Biden’s press shop, key deputy and assistant positions will be held by women rather than men.
Biden has chosen Obama administration alumnus Jen Psaki to be White House press secretary and Karine Jean Pierre as deputy press secretary, along with Kate Bedingfield as White House communications director, with Pili Tobar as deputy communications director. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will have Ashley Etienne as a communications director and Symone Sanders as a spokeswoman and senior adviser. Incoming first lady Jill Biden will have Elizabeth Alexander as communications director.
Still, it was under Trump that women held the top two White House communications slots for the first time. In 2017 and 2018, Sarah Sanders was press secretary, and Hope Hicks was communications director.
Women have held either the White House communications director role in every year since 2013. In the 24 years from 1989 to 2012 — covering both Bush administrations, the Clinton administration, and the first half of the Obama administration — women held one of the two roles for at least part of the calendar year in 13 of those years.
Psaki was communications director under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2015, and Jennifer Palmieri held the role before her from 2013 to 2015. Anita Dunn and Ellen Moran each briefly filled the role in 2009.
Two of President George W. Bush’s top communications aides, 2007-2009 press secretary Dana Perino and 2005-2006 communications director Nicolle Wallace, now host cable television shows on Fox News and MSNBC, respectively. Karen Hughes was Bush’s communications director for part of 2001.
Under President Bill Clinton, Loretta Ucelli was White House communications director from 1999 to the end of his administration in 2001, and before her, Ann Lewis from 1997 to 1999. His first press secretary from 1993 to 1994 was Dee Dee Myers, the first woman to hold the position.
“Being the first woman was a little harder for me to establish my authority and my credibility in a culture, in Washington, which is pretty traditional,” Myers told Voice of America in a 2010 interview. “I definitely faced challenges, and I sometimes felt I had more responsibility than I had authority, which I think is a problem a lot of women face. But I fought back, and over time, I was able to make things work better for me and most importantly for the president.”
Margaret Tutwiler was communications director for the last part of President George H.W. Bush’s administration from August 1992 to the end of his administration in January 1993.
The first woman to hold a top White House communications role was Margita White, who was President Gerald Ford’s communications director from 1975 to 1976 before being appointed to the Federal Communications Commission.
Obama is the only president since Clinton who did not appoint a woman to the role of press secretary at any point during his administration.
