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Which president had the highest percentage of female senior staff members?
Executive summary
Available reporting in the provided sources does not offer a comprehensive, ranked list answering which U.S. president had the highest percentage of female senior staff; however, contemporary coverage highlights that Joe Biden’s early senior White House team was reported as 53% women, a higher explicit percentage than figures shown for other recent presidents in these sources [1]. Other materials note high female representation in Cabinet-level posts under Biden (nearly half) and record Cabinet shares in recent administrations, but none of the supplied items compute or compare “percentage of female senior staff” across all presidencies [1] [2] [3].
1. What the sources actually quantify — and what they do not
The CNBC report cited specific percentages for President-elect Joe Biden’s transition and senior staff: 52% women for his transition team and 53% women for the senior staff named on or around November 2020 [1]. Statista (drawing on Pew) and Rutgers’ CAWP materials document women’s representation in Cabinets and Cabinet-level posts across administrations, noting that under Biden nearly half of Cabinet and Cabinet-level positions were held by women and cataloguing women appointed to presidential cabinets historically [2] [3]. None of the supplied sources, however, provides a systematic, side‑by‑side historical comparison of “percentage of female senior staff” for every president, so a definitive ranked answer is not found in current reporting [1] [2] [3].
2. Biden’s early senior staff: the headline percentage and context
CNBC reported that Biden’s senior White House staff as announced in November 2020 included five women among the senior appointees that were publicly named and that, according to CNN data cited by CNBC, Biden’s senior staff was 53% women — a clear, headline-ready number that media used to underscore a campaign promise of diversity [1]. This figure is aimed at the White House senior staff cohort rather than the entire federal executive branch or the Cabinet; reporting framed the number as fulfillment of Biden’s stated intent to make his administration “look like America” [1].
3. Cabinet-level comparisons — similar but not identical measures
Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics documents women appointed to Cabinets historically and lists who those women were; it focuses on Cabinet and Cabinet‑level posts confirmed by the Senate and notes evolving Cabinet compositions across presidencies [3]. Statista, via Pew Research Center data, tracks the share of Cabinet and Cabinet-level positions held by women from the Johnson through recent administrations, showing that recent administrations reached historic highs in female Cabinet representation [2]. These Cabinet measures are related to, but distinct from, “senior White House staff” percentages: Cabinet counts exclude many White House senior staff roles and emphasize Senate-confirmed posts [3] [2].
4. Recent Republican administrations and contrasting coverage
Reporting on the Trump administration in the supplied set emphasizes appointments of individual high-profile women — for instance, Susie Wiles as the first female White House chief of staff in the 2025 Trump administration — and notes that one-third of Cabinet and Cabinet-level appointees were women in that administration’s 2025 composition [4] [5]. These pieces provide concrete examples of women in senior roles, but they do not present a percentage for the overall “senior staff” comparable to the 53% figure cited for Biden’s senior staff [4] [5].
5. What a definitive answer would require
To state which president had the highest percentage of female senior staff you need (a) a consistent definition of “senior staff” (White House senior staff, Cabinet and Cabinet-level officials, or a combined Executive Office cohort), (b) comparable rosters for each administration measured at the same point[6] in time, and (c) systematic counting and percentage calculations. The supplied sources offer snapshots (Biden’s 53% senior staff figure; data on Cabinet shares) but not the comprehensive cross‑administration dataset required for a definitive historical ranking [1] [2] [3].
6. Bottom line and cautious conclusion
Based on the available sources, the strongest explicit claim you can cite is that Biden’s senior staff was reported as 53% women in late 2020 reporting — a notably high, named percentage in the supplied material [1]. The sources also show record-high female presence in Cabinets in recent administrations but do not supply a complete historical comparison of “senior staff” percentages to identify an all‑time leader [2] [3]. For a definitive, historically ranked answer one would need to assemble consistent staff rosters across presidencies and compute percentages — a task not completed in the documents you provided (not found in current reporting).