The first woman to head the intelligence community; an experienced African American diplomat as ambassador to the UN; a prominent economist, who could become the first to head the Treasury Department in its 231-year history; and a defense veteran who would also be the first woman to lead the Pentagon.
They are Avril Haines, Linda Thomas, Janet Yellen and Michèle Flournoy, respectively, the four women who are profiled for the most important positions of the Democratic cabinet.
Haines and Thomas have already been nominated by Biden and will have to be approved in the Senate. Shortly the president-elect will announce to the rest of his cabinet, meanwhile, the American press has advanced the names of Yellen and Flournoy that are incorporated into this list that will be a milestone in the history of women in United States politics.
KAMALA HARRIS
Harris, 56, born in Oakland, California, has become the first woman to serve as Vice President of the US Government. Beyond the importance of the position and the symbolic nature of her appointment, Kamala Harris was already an icon for feminism, as was Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the time. It is the perfect example of women breaking the famous glass ceiling.
At 40, she became a San Francisco prosecutor, the first woman and the first non-white person to serve. Later she would be attorney general of California, where she would once again score a first time: female and African American. Then would come a seat in the Senate, his candidacy for the presidency of the United States and now the vice presidency.
Harris, of a Jamaican father and a Hindu mother, has stated that she comes from a culture “that produces strong women.” She has also defined herself as “black and proud of it.”
She is considered by some as a defender of social struggles, especially for an outraged generation that raised powerful movements such as the “Black Lives Matter”, protests that she has openly supported.
In addition, he is an environmentalist and promoted the policy of the Green New Deal, a project for the United States to abandon fossil fuels by 2045.
As have other women in her party, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Harris has charmed millennials less interested in politics. Even the support of celebrities such as Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Pink or Halle Berry have contributed to its popularity among young people.
His mother was a scientist, a breast cancer researcher, and his father a professor at Stanford University. Her sister Maya is also involved in politics, she was one of those responsible for the Hilary Clinton campaign in 2016. She has no children and is married to Douglas Emhoff, a successful lawyer, divorced with two children.
APRIL HAINES
If ratified by the Senate as expected, Haines will be the first woman to head the network of 17 agencies that make up the US intelligence community, a position created after the 9/11 attacks.
This 51-year-old New Yorker was born in downtown Manhattan to an upper-class family and is an only child. Haines graduated in Physics from the University of Chicago and received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown. Before coming to the White House as legal advisor in 2008, she was a practicing attorney and coincided with Biden in the Senate.
It was in 2013 that her great moment arrived: Barack Obama chose her to be number two in the CIA under the leadership of John Brennan. She became the first woman to hold that position. At that time, he participated in Obama’s controversial “drone program.”
In 2018, with the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House, Haines was replaced in the CIA by Gina Haspel. Since then he has dedicated himself to writing articles, teaching classes and consulting to companies within the defense and security sector.
Haines is a lover not only of physics, but also of martial arts. Before starting university, he went to Tokyo, Japan for a year to study at an elite judo academy where he obtained the brown belt in that discipline.
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is a highly experienced diplomat who has served in Liberia, Pakistan, Kenya, Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica. Biden has nominated her to be the next United States representative to the United Nations.
Thomas-Greenfield, who briefly served in the Trump administration in 2017, was undersecretary for African Affairs during Obama’s second term. After leaving office four years ago, the ambassador drew on her knowledge of the African continent and worked for the Albright Stonebridge Group, a business diplomacy firm.
She was born in Baker, Louisiana and is married to Lafayette, with whom she has two children. Thomas-Greenfield keeps a low-key profile of his personal life or family. Although on Twitter she is very active sharing her work.
JANET L. YELLEN
Yellen is the favorite to become the future secretary of the Treasury (equivalent to the secretary of economy or finance) of the Biden administration. Several media have advanced that the president-elect will nominate her immediately.
She was the first woman to head the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the world’s largest economy, between 2014 and 2018. She was born in Brooklyn, the daughter of a family doctor and an elementary school teacher who instilled in her the habit of reading the economic press Yellen wanted to study Exact Sciences, but opted for Economics.
At 74, she is considered an outstanding economist who has broken the molds and, according to the people who have worked with her, has a firmly balanced personality in her positions, in addition to having a great capacity to reach consensus.
She is married to the 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics, George Akerlof. Yellen and Akerlof moved to the United Kingdom for a few years to teach at the London School of Economics, from where they returned in 1980 to continue teaching in the United States. Teaching is one of her passions.
MICHÈLE FLOURNOY
Flournoy could become the first woman to lead the largest US government agency: the Department of Defense. Michèle Flournoy is a veteran politician and her name is well known at the Pentagon. During the Obama administration she served as undersecretary for defense policy, the third most important civilian position in the entity.
Her career there began earlier, during Bill Clinton’s presidency she was deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy. Flournoy is a figure respected by both Democrats and Republicans and his confirmation in the Senate is expected to be smooth.
She is the mother of three children and in 2012, she surprised her colleagues at the Pentagon by resigning from her position to spend more time with her family.
During a radio interview, he admitted that his working hours were very long and intense and added that it was time to be close to his children: “there is a point in life, when my children are reaching adolescence that they really need a father.”
Although it was difficult for her, her decision resonated with American mothers and sparked a debate about whether mothers can reach the highest levels of government or business in the country as easily as men.
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