Obama faces new criticism from women's groups over his team

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The Hill:

Obama faces new criticism from women's groups over his team
By Silla Brush and Sam Youngman - 09/12/10 03:07 PM ET

President Obama is facing new criticism from women’s rights groups for failing to nominate a woman to his core group of economic advisers.

Obama on Friday named longtime adviser Austan Goolsbee to head the Council of Economic Advisers after Christina Romer left to return to the University of California at Berkeley.

Women’s rights groups -- including the National Organization for Women (NOW) and The New Agenda -- have sharply criticized the White House for not including more women in prominent positions overseeing the economy and financial policy. The groups are pressuring the president to nominate Elizabeth Warren as the inaugural head of a new consumer financial protection office.

“It's very disappointing. You can't say unexpected but very disappointing that the president is content to build a boy's club in the White House in many areas,” Amy Siskind, head of The New Agenda, said Friday after the president named Goolsbee to the job.

“The problem with the president insulating himself with the old boys around him is that he is really not getting information about how people are struggling, how women are struggling,” Terry O'Neill, head of NOW, said earlier last week.

In a Friday press conference, Obama praised Warren as a “dear friend” and “tremendous advocate,” but he has not named her as his nominee. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs this week said a nomination will be announced soon.