In wake of widespread allegations over not giving fair representation to women in the cabinet, the world of diplomacy brought a rare scene when the US President Donald Trump’s male-dominated cabinet’s two top office bearers, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary James Mattis, stood head and head with Indian female counterparts- Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The irony was captured during a high-level meeting that took place in New Dehli on Thursday.
Trump’s 24-member cabinet has only six women, which makes only 25 per cent of representation being given to women. According to an American thinktank Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), he is the top five presidents in the history of the US to have a gender-unequal cabinet.
It further notes that since Ronal Regan, every president’s cabinet had a more balanced cabinet in terms of gender representation, with Trump’s rival and Democrats’ presidential nominee and former secretary of state Hilary Clinton vowing to give 50 per cent seats to women.
Trump has come under severe criticism on multiple occasions for making sexist statements. For instance, in 2013, he had Tweeted that the rising number of sexual assault cases in the US military is because they let men and women work together.
In February 2017, Swedens’s Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin had signed a climate change bill and posted a picture of her being surrounded by female colleges.
The act was reportedly a response to Trump’s signing of executive order cutting aid to NGOs working on abortion rights.
