Biden's diverse cabinet subject to double standard in hearings

On March 22, 2021, with the confirmation of Marty Walsh as secretary of labor, all but one of President Joe Biden's cabinet will have been confirmed by the Senate. Only the head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has not been confirmed as Biden's original nominee, Neera Tanden, withdrew when it became clear she was not going to be confirmed. So far, the president has not nominated a replacement for Tanden. Even with her withdrawal, the Biden cabinet is the most diverse in the country's history, with the first woman as Treasury secretary (Janet Yellen) and the first Native American cabinet member ever (Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland).

During these confirmation hearings and those for the next-level nominees, it appears women of color are being subjected to a double standard. In particular, Tanden, Vanita Gupta (nominated for associate attorney general), and Kristen Clarke (nominated to head the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division) have had to publicly apologize during their hearings for what have been described as "mean tweets" against Republicans. Meanwhile, the men in the cabinet who had difficult hearings, such as Xavier Becerra (secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), had those hearings based on differences in policy such as abortion.