Woman Between Islam and Western Society
3. Western Woman
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has been slower: the proportion of female members
of congress went up from 4 percent in 1975 to 10
percent in 1994.
• In 1991, 20 percent of then-President Bush’s
Senate confirmed appointments — that is, the
higher-ranking appointments — were women, up
from18 percent in 1977 under then-President Jimmy
Carter. President William Clinton’s cabinet is
peppered with women — as of September 1993,
Attorney General Janet Reno, Energy Secretary
Hazel O’Leary, and Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala were in the Cabinet
proper. Laura D’Andrea Tyson was Chairman of
the prestigious Council of Economic Advisers,
Sheila Widnall was Secretary of the Air Force,
Dr. Joycelyn Elders was U.S. Surgeon General, and
the heads of the Peace Corps, the Environmental
Protection Agency and Commodity Futures
Trading Commission were women. One out of the
five governors on the Federal Reserve Board and
one out of the four commissioners on the U.S.
International Trade Commission are women. There
are about ten women in top posts within the
Executive Office of the President, and there are
