Biden team announces ‘Gender Policy Council’ to eyerolls online

A day ahead of his inauguration, Joe Biden announced the creation of a “White House Gender Policy Council.” What the council will actually do, beyond annoying conservatives online, is unclear.

In an official statement announcement on Tuesday, the Biden transition team said that the new body will “guide and coordinate government policy that impacts women and girls, across a wide range of issues such as economic security, healthcare, racial justice, gender-based violence, and foreign policy.”

At first glance, the council appears to be a relaunch of the Obama administration’s White House Council on Women and Girls, which was disbanded by the Trump administration in 2017. Although the Biden team’s statement makes no mention of men, or the transgender, the new name was likely chosen to reflect the more woke world of 2021.

The council will be chaired by gender studies professor Jennifer Klein and lawyer Julissa Reynoso, who is also incoming First Lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff.

Its mandate broad and its mission vague, commentators online mocked the council, with conservative columnist Mike LaChance snarking: “The White House will now have a ‘Gender Studies’ department.”

Biden has repeatedly touted his efforts to build “an administration that looks like America,” by appointing more women and minorities to his cabinet than any of his predecessors. While his cabinet and department picks thus far are diverse in terms of gender and skin color – including a transgender assistant health secretary, what the overwhelming majority have in common is political homogeneity. Roughly 80 percent of his nominations so far worked for or collaborated with the Obama administration.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!