Clinton chided for not wooing women

(First Edition)

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuter) - President-elect Bill Clinton is this weekend attempting to complete nominations for his cabinet, against a series of complaints that too few senior jobs have gone to women.

Of six Clinton cabinet appointments made so far, five were men, said Harriet Woods, president of the National Women's Political Caucus.

'He has stated repeatedly that he wants 'a cabinet and appointments that look like America', which would mean 50 per cent women. We are looking forward to his achieving this goal with his remaining cabinet appointments,' she said.

Clinton has placed women in four top-level posts: Donna Shalala as secretary for Health and Human Services; Carol Browner as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Laura Tyson as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers; and Alice Rivlin as deputy budget director. But of those, only the health secretary, Ms Browner, is in the cabinet.

A Clinton spokesman, George Stephanopoulos, told reporters that finding more women was not causing a slowdown in cabinet appointments.

'He's proud of his announcements so far . . . and I expect that there will be more women as we go along,' he said.

Clinton is said to be interested in appointing a female attorney general, but of those widely tipped to fill eight other key roles - including secretary of state, defence, agriculture, energy and education - all are men.

The transition team, meanwhile, said Clinton's wife, Hillary, was welcome to attend cabinet meetings as often as she pleased.