Biden White House touts diversity of appointees after 100 days

More than half of the roughly 1,500 political appointees in the Biden administration are women and nearly one-third are naturalized citizens or children of immigrants, according to data released Thursday by the White House.

The White House Office of Presidential Personnel issued a diversity report on Biden’s 100th day in office to tout the administration’s commitment to filling the administration with women and people of color. Biden has tapped roughly 1,500 appointees to various agencies so far.

“And, consistent with President Biden’s commitment to leveraging the talent, creativity, and expertise of the American people to build an Administration that looks like America, more than half of all Biden appointees are women, and half identify as non-white – numbers that set a new bar for future Administrations,” the White House said in a release.

Fifty-eight percent of Biden’s appointees are women, 18 percent identify as Black, 15 percent identify as Latino or Hispanic and 15 percent identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander, according to the Office of Presidential Personnel. Fourteen percent identify as LGBTQ, 15 percent were the first in their families to attend college and 32 percent of appointees are naturalized citizens or children of immigrants.

Biden pledged throughout the transition that he would assemble a Cabinet and administration that looked like America in terms of diversity. Experts have said Biden is on track to have the most diverse administration in history.

Several of his Cabinet-level appointments were historic, as he nominated the first female Treasury secretary, the first Black head of the Pentagon and the first Native American to lead the Department of the Interior.

The White House faced some criticism for the lack of an Asian American or Pacific Islander in a Cabinet-level role, and those concerns were amplified in the wake of a shooting in Atlanta that left several Asian women dead. The administration has since tapped Erika Moritsugu to serve as a liaison to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.