Obama Champions Women's Issues with a White House Council on Women and Girls

In a move that's both pragmatic and inspiring, President Barack Obama is going to do something today that no other president has done. He's going to establish a White House Council on Women and Girls which will "provide a coordinated federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families," according to the Washingtonpost.com's politics blog The Fix.

The fact that women voters elected him in overwhelming numbers plays into his decision, as does the fact that we're in the midst of Women's History Month. Plus, women's groups have been calling for him to do something of this sort for some time now.

According to The Fix, "The Council will be chaired by Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser and personal friend to the president, and the day-to-day operations will be run by Tina Tchen, who is currently director of the White House Office of Public Liaison."

This action is just one more example of his commitment to women and women's issues; he has also been a champion of reproductive issues in the early days of his presidency, along with equal pay for equal work as evidenced by the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, the first bill he signed into law.

President Obama is expected to sign an executive order later today to bring the new White House Council on Women and Girls into being.

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