White House photo/Chuck Kennedy
This is Women’s History month. While some look back at the progress made by women, others look ahead at what still needs to be done. Yesterday, President Obama did both at a ceremony for the signing of an executive order creating a White House Council on Women and Girls.
President Obama said the purpose of the council “… is to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy,” Before the president signed the executive order, he paid tribute to the achievements and struggles of women in his family, his wife, his mother, grandmother and their counterparts across the nation.
The president said it is time for a coordinated federal response to the challenges facing females of all ages: ” So now it’s up to us … to ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have no limits on their dreams, no obstacles to their achievements — and that they have opportunities their mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers never dreamed of. ”
Obama signed the executive order surrounded by some of the high ranking women in his administration and the government, among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Prominent women like California Senator Barbara Boxer and WNBA superstar Lisa Leslie were in the audience as well.
