Lynne Rienner President's Cabinet: Gender, Power and Representation

Are female office holders most acceptable when they most resemble men? Why has a woman never led the Department of the Treasury, or Defense, or Veterans Affairs? Reflecting on these and similar questions, MaryAnne Borrelli explores women's selection for - and exclusion from - U.S. cabinet positions. Borrelli considers how the rhetoric employed in the selection and confirmation of secretaries-designate establishes gendered expectations for the performance of nominees once they are in office. Analyzing the career paths of secretaries appointed from the 1930s through the first year of the George W. Bush administration, she demonstrates how gender shapes political judgments - by presidents, senators, and the nominees themselves - to reflect consistently masculine ideas about who should rule and how power should be exercised in the United States.