WASHINGTON — Late last year, President Barack Obama summoned the highest-ranking women on his staff to a dinner at the White House so he could ask them a question: Should he be worried about a nagging perception that his administration was a testosterone-fueled boys club? The dinner led to the formation of an informal group of women at the White House — a girls club of sorts — to help female advisers navigate the upper echelons of the administration.
The boys-club story line had been around since the days of the Obama presidential campaign, which was run by a tight inner circle of mostly male advisers, many of whom came with Obama to the White House.
Women fill several top jobs in the White House. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, a longtime friend of the president’s, is considered one of his closest aides. Melody Barnes oversees Obama’s domestic agenda. And Nancy-Ann DeParle runs the White House health care policy team, a position that aides say has put her in closer contact with the president than nearly anyone else in the administration.
Still, more than a year into Obama’s term, the most recognizable faces of the administration, the people the president is most often seen huddling with in the Oval Office and the Situation Room, are men: most notably, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and senior adviser David Axelrod, along with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who joined the Obama team after the election.
The boys-club image gained currency from a slew of men-only basketball games and golf rounds hosted by the admittedly sports-obsessed president.
On Nov. 5, Obama invited the top women on his staff to a dinner to discuss the criticism.
One senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private dinner, said the women assured the president they weren’t clamoring for an opportunity to lace up their sneakers and hit the hardwood. But they did make the point that sports gave men an opportunity to bond and establish a level of comfort with the president that may not be afforded to the women who only saw him in formal settings.
Still, the all-male basketball games and golf outings have continued. The women-only dinners have continued, too — just not with the president.
Spearheaded by Jarrett, the women now meet monthly for one of the most high-powered dinners in the nation’s capital.
The senior official said the dinners have created a support network of women within the White House.
Jarrett dismisses the notion of a boys club. Using Obama’s sports outings to support that idea, she said, is an artificial measure of who has real influence in the White House.
“The fact that Nancy-Ann is handling the president’s single most important domestic issue is more important than whether she plays basketball,” she said.
