The White House press briefing room was almost entirely female on Thursday
The White House press briefing room was almost exclusively filled with female journalists on Thursday, when just one male reporter was present to as questions of President Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki.
A week after ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN all announced the appointment of female White House correspondents, cameras inside the White House briefing room on Thursday showed that the trend toward women holding those coveted positions extends well beyond the major networks.
Twitter observers and the White House correspondents themselves remarked on the shift, noting that all but one seat in the room was filled by a woman.
Ladies first: White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s press briefing room on Thursday was almost exclusively filled with female journalists
Women in media: Twelve female and one male reporter sat in the room, joined by several male photographers and videographers
New faces: Among those in the room were Kaitlan Collins (pictured), who was just named chief White House correspondent for CNN
Spree: In the first 20 minutes, Psaki answered eight questions, all from female reporters like Patsy Widakuswara (left) and Politico’s Anita Kumar (right)
Reporting: Sabrina Siddiqui, a White House correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, was also among those to ask questions
Interesting!
Several of the correspondents took to Twitter to note the female-filled room which included ABC News’ Mary Bruce (right) and Annie Linskey (left) from the Washington Post
White House press secretary Psaki stood at the podium fielding questions from woman after woman on Thursday.
Twelve female and one male reporter sat in the room, joined by several male photographers and videographers.
In the first 20 minutes of the briefing, Psaki answered eight questions, all from female reporters.
There are currently limited numbers of press present in each briefing so that correspondents can maintain social distance amid the pandemic – and reporters are being given spots on a rotating basis, meaning that there will not always be such a heavy ratio of women to men.
However, social media users were quick to celebrate the high number of women in the briefing room on Thursday, including several members of the press who were present.
One such female reporter, Nancy Cook of Bloomberg News, remarked on the phenomenon on Twitter.
‘I was struck today, sitting in the WH briefing room, that the first four rows of seats were ALL female reporters from TV, the wires and print,’ she wrote.
That’s a cool moment.’
‘And from my last row seat it was amazing to see all women in there, only one man reporter was present,’ added Janet Rodriguez from Univision.
‘Really good to see all those female reporters in the front rows of the White House briefing right now,’ Washington Post White House Reporter Seung Min Kim chimed in.
Chiming in: Raquel Krahenbuhl, a correspondent for Globo News TV in Brazil, also asked a question (left), as did Nancy Cook of Bloomberg News (right)
Topics: Questions at the briefing covered immigration, vaccine distribution, and foreign affairs. Univision’s Janet Rodriguez is pictured
You go girls: More White House correspondents, including Reuters’ Nandita Bose (right) and ABC’s Cecilia Vega (left) are pictured at Thursdays’s briefing
Listening in: A reporter from the Associated Press made up the dozen women present
Raising the bar: Washington Examiner White House correspondent Rob Crilly noted that he was the lone male journalist there on Thursday — so he picked out a special face mask
Other Twitter users have noticed, too.
‘It’s so lovely to note that almost all the press in the room were women — women asking intelligent questions in a civil & polite manner & being answered in the same way,’ wrote one. ‘What a relief from when the press were mostly belligerent men bellowing insults to a bubbleheaded Barbie!’
‘Love seeing so many women reporters in today’s Whitehouse [sic] daily press briefing,’ tweeted another.
Washington Post White House reporter Matt Viser weighed in as well, tweeting: ‘Pretty impressive that, 20 minutes into the White House briefing, there have been eight reporters who have asked questions. All female.
‘With questions answered by a female press secretary.’
Washington Post White House reporter Matt Viser tweeted: ‘Pretty impressive that, 20 minutes into the White House briefing, there have been eight reporters who have asked questions. All female. With questions answered by a female press secretary’
Nancy Cook of Bloomberg News remarked: ‘I was struck today, sitting in the WH briefing room, that the first four rows of seats were ALL female reporters from TV, the wires and print’
‘And from my last row seat it was amazing to see all women in there, only one man reporter was present,’ added Janet Rodriguez from Univision
‘Really good to see all those female reporters in the front rows of the White House briefing right now,’ Washington Post White House Reporter Seung Min Kim chimed in
Meanwhile, Washington Examiner White House correspondent Rob Crilly noted that he was the lone male journalist there on Thursday — so he picked out a special face mask for the occasion.
‘I’m the only male journalist with a briefing room seat today so I figured I would make an effort,’ he wrote.
Social media users were celebrating the female shift last week when four major networks appointed new White House correspondents.
According to The Hill, ABC appointed Cecilia Vega as chief White House correspondent, CNN gave the position to Kaitlan Collins, CBS News tapped Nancy Cordes, and NBC assigned White House coverage to Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander.
Fox News also named Peter Doocy a White House correspondent, joining Kristi
n Fisher, who will continue in the role.
Yamiche Alcindor will continue in her role for PBS.
Wow! Other Twitter users have noticed, too, calling it ‘lovely’ and ‘great’
