September 15, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LCWINS Delivers Over 850 Names of Well-Qualified Women to Serve in Senior National Security Positions in 2021
Conclusively shattering the claim that there aren’t enough qualified women to fill key national security roles, this week the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS) delivered to the Biden-Harris and Trump-Pence teams two databases including a total of over 850 exceptional women ready to serve in the most senior national security and foreign policy positions of the next Administration. These roles include some 200Senate-confirmed Presidentially-appointed national security positions.
LCWINS launched in June 2019. This group of nearly 100 bipartisan national security professionals is dedicated to ensuring that women, in all their diversity, have equal space at the policy-making table. Because we know, and study after study shows, that including women at the top produces better outcomes.
The lists LCWINS provided are made up of talented, experienced women from across the UnitedStates who were nominated by former senior government officials, professional colleagues, and others. The women on these lists collectively have 15,000 years of career experience and have represented America in nearly every country in the world. Thirty-seven percent of the women in the LCWINS lists are women of color, including 14% who are Black. Women who identify as LGBTQ make up five percent of those included.
To build the lists, LCWINS cast a wide net, reaching out across the country to ensure government, academia, think tanks, nonprofits, and the private sector were all represented. Women on the lists indicated whether they were interested in serving in the Trump Administration, a potential Biden Administration, or both.
While delivering these databases is a key strategic priority for LCWINS, the organization’s work doesn’t end here. LCWINS will continue to offer to collaborate with both political teams, and after the election outcome is known, LCWINS will track gender diversity in senior appointments to hold the next Administration accountable on inclusion.
Drawing on diversity and inclusion experts, including presidential personnel alumni and veterans of the Senate confirmation process, LCWINS also provided the Trump and Biden teams recommendations for processes to help ensure gender parity and diverse outcomes in hiring. The group is also holding a series of webinars to help prepare candidates to navigate the political appointment process, featuring women leaders who have done it successfully in previous Administrations of both parties.
For more information, contact press@lcwins.org or visit https://www.lcwins.org/. LCWINS ExecutiveDirector Lindsay Rodman, as well as other LCWINS Executive Committee and Leadership Council members, may be available for interviews.
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The Leadership Council for Women in National Security improves national security by ensuring that women, in all their diversity, have equal space at the policy-making table. LCWINS is an organization of women and allies from across the political spectrum working to advance gender inclusion at the highest levels of the U.S. national security and foreign policy workforce.
For more information, contact: Press@lcwins.org | 703-795-1929