Author: White House Is Hostile Work Environment for Women
The Obama administration is denying claims in a new book, Confidence Men: Wall Street Washington, and the Education of a President by Ron Suskind, that former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has complained that the White House presents a "hostile workplace to women."
Dunn has denied she made the comment which Suskind claims to have corroborated through a former White House official who told him, "The White House fit all the classic requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace for women."
Suskind also claims to have spoken to Christina Romer, a former economic advisor to President Barack Obama who, in reference to the atmosphere in the White House, stated, “I felt like a piece of meat.”
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Romer, as well as many other current or former members of the administration have come forward to say they were misquoted or taken out of context by Suskind.
Appearing on CNN Tuesday, former Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton denied that the White House had ever cultivated an atmosphere that was disrespectful to women while he worked for the president.
He went on to list a number of women in the administration whom President Obama appointed to powerful positions.
Confidence Men... also spoke of a dysfunction in the White House, alleging that economic advisor Larry Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner running roughshod, and slow-walking the president's directives on important policy issues.
Both Summers and Geithner have refuted the claims.
Suskind, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of several political and White House tell-all books, including The Price of Loyalty, a book on the Bush White House, told Politico Tuesday that his book is "densely sourced and the analysis is pitch-perfect."
"Throughout the book, it's shown that people felt good about the president. Part of why the White House pushed me to write about this women's issue in the workplace is they thought the president solved this issue and in large measure the president says he stepped up here," Suskind said.
