VOA常速英语:拜登内阁女性过半,性别平权指日可待

While the data is not yet final, there is no doubt that women help secure Joe Biden's electoral victory. 57% of women voted for Biden, compared to 42% for President Donald Trump, according to exit polls by Edison research. Since becoming President-elect, Biden has nominated women to fill key cabinet positions. While this team has unmatched experience and accomplishments, they all reflect the idea, that we cannot meet these challenges with old thinking and unchanged habits. For example, we're going to have the first woman lead the Intelligence Community. If approved by the senate, that woman would be Avril Haines, Biden's choice for Director of National Intelligence. Biden also picked women to serve as Treasury Secretary, UN ambassador, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and his Chair of Economic Advisers. His senior communications team will be all female, including Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Vice President Kamala Harris will bring her own team of women, including Hartina Flournoy as Chief of Staff. These women also represent various racial and economic backgrounds, and include daughters of working class and immigrant families. Activists say this diversity will help Biden achieve key priorities- racial and gender equity.

We're really looking for people to be at the top levels of government, who are not only experienced and established experts in their field, but who have the experiences of the communities that they are serving, that their intended to serve, so that they can truly make the best decisions on behalf of the American people, and the communities that most need those parts in those programs. Biden's agenda for women includes improving economic security, through equal pay and ending pregnancy discrimination, work-family balance, including parental leave and childcare, access to health care, ending violence against women and empowering women around the world. Having female decision makers is seen as especially crucial, as the country faces the pandemic and tries to recover economically. We can look back and see just how important it is. For example, that we've had black women in positions of public health leadership or as mayors of big cities, who said, look, there's a disproportionate effect on black communities and even on black women economically in this moment. And they are making sure that policy is reflective of those distinctive challenges. To enact his ambitious agenda for women, Biden will need to overcome partisan gridlock in congress, where his democratic party has a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, and republicans may keep control of the Senate. Patsey Nuwada VOA news.