President Obama is aware the inequality of women, even at press conferences. The president infuriated some conservatives we he only called on women for question at his end of the year press conference. Conservatives responded with words of distrust to outrage on conservative blogs.
They believe the display one-sided at the very least. Commentators on a conservative blog were furious, one comment calling it a “war on men”. The press did get an advanced warning about this according to CBS. Beforehand the White House told reporters the president would take questions from those normally not called upon. The president’s end of the year press conference was shocking to some. He answered exactly eight questions — all from women.
This decision to focus on women was not a mistake. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, “The fact is, there are many women from a variety of news organizations who day-in and day-out do the hard work of covering the President of the United States,” This opportunity did highlight women who are often ignored during press conferences.
The eight women called on were Carrie Budoff Brown, Politico; Cheryl Bolen, Bloomberg; Julie Pace, Associated Press; Lesley Clark, McClatchy; Roberta Rampton, Reuters; Colleen M. Nelson, Wall Street Journal;Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post and April Ryan, of American Urban Radio.
Will this help bring attention to the inequality of women in the work place? No one knows for sure, but with people takling about, and debating Presidents Obama’s reasons, more Americans are now aware of women’s plight of inequality.