Women Could Lead Federal Law Enforcement for First Time in Decades
President Barack Obama will reportedly name Sally Yates, Georgia’s U.S. Attorney in the state’s Northern District, to be deputy attorney general early this week, a federal official told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Yates will join Loretta Lynch, the president’s pick for attorney general, to lead the federal law enforcement agency—the first time since the mid-1990 two women will potentially run the agency and the first time in history that two U.S. Attorneys have both been promoted to the job.
The gender shift may make headlines, but it shouldn’t surprise—the president has been deliberately bringing gender and racial equality to the judiciary for years. A full 42% of the president’s judgeships have gone to women, nearly doubling the 22% of judgeships his predecessor George W. Bush gave to women, according to The New Yorker. He’s also appointed more minorities than any of his predecessors: Thirty-six percent of his judgeships have gone to minorities, doubling Bush’s minority appointments. Obama says this new makeup “speaks to the larger shifts in our society.”
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