List of female United States Cabinet Secretaries
The United States Cabinet has had 32 female officers. No woman held a Cabinet position before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920, which prohibits states and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex.
Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in the Cabinet; she was appointed Secretary of Labor in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Oveta Culp Hobby became the second woman to serve in the Cabinet, when she was named head of the then newly formed Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1953. This department was subdivided into the departments of Education and Health and Human Services in 1979. Patricia Roberts Harris, who was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare before the department split and had earlier served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1977, became the first female Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1979. Harris was also the first African-American woman to serve in the Cabinet.
Former North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole is the first woman to have served in two different Cabinet positions in two different administrations. She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as Secretary of Transportation in 1983, and was the Secretary of Labor during the tenure of George H. W. Bush—Reagan's successor. Czechoslovakia-born Madeleine Albright became the first foreign-born woman to serve in the Cabinet when she was appointed Secretary of State in 1997. Her appointment also made her the highest-ranking female Cabinet member at that time. Condoleezza Rice was appointed Secretary of State in 2005, and thus became the highest-ranking woman in the United States presidential line of succession in history. In 2006, Nancy Pelosi replaced Rice as the highest-ranking woman in line when she was elected Speaker of the House.
In 2009, President Barack Obama named four women to the Cabinet—Arizona governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, former First Lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, California Representative Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor, and Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Clinton became the only First Lady to serve in the Cabinet and the third female Secretary of State. Napolitano became the first female Secretary of Homeland Security. Barack Obama appointed eight women to Cabinet positions, the most of any Presidency, surpassing George W. Bush's record of six.
The Department of Labor has had the most female Secretaries with seven. The Department of Health and Human Services has had five, the departments of State, Transportation, Commerce, and Education have had three, and the departments of Housing and Urban Development and Justice have each had two. The defunct Department of Health, Education, and Welfare also had two female Secretaries. The three departments of Defense, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs are the only existing Cabinet departments that have not had women Secretaries.Female Secretaries
Current departments
Numerical order represents the seniority of the Secretaries in the United States presidential line of succession.
| # | Secretary | Position | Year
appointed | Party | Administration | |
| 1 | * | | 1997 | Democratic | | |
| 1 | | | 2005 | Republican | | |
| 1 | | | 2009 | Democratic | | |
| 2 | — | | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | — | | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | * | | 1993 | Democratic | | |
| 4 | | | 2015 | Democratic | | |
| 5 | * | | 2001 | Republican | | |
| 5 | | | 2013 | Democratic | | |
| 6 | * | | 2001 | Republican | | |
| 7 | * | | 1977 | Democratic | | |
| 7 | | | 1992 | Republican | | |
| 7 | | | 2013 | Democratic | | |
| 8 | * | | 1933 | Democratic | | |
| 8 | | | 1987 | Republican | | |
| 8 | | | 1989 | Republican | | |
| 8 | | | 1991 | Republican | | |
| 8 | | | 1997 | Democratic | | |
| 8 | | | 2001 | Republican | | |
| 8 | | | 2009 | Democratic | | |
| 9 | * | | 1979 | Democratic | | |
| 9 | | | 1983 | Republican | | |
| 9 | | | 1993 | Democratic | | |
| 9 | | | 2009 | Democratic | | |
| 9 | | | 2014 | Democratic | | |
| 10 | * | | 1975 | Republican | | |
| 10 | | | 1977 | Democratic | | |
| 11 | * | | 1983 | Republican | | |
| 11 | | | 2006 | Republican | | |
| 11 | | | 2017 | Republican | | |
| 12 | * | | 1993 | Democratic | | |
| 13 | * | | 1979 | Democratic | | |
| 13 | | | 2005 | Republican | | |
| 13 | | | 2017 | Republican | | |
| 14 | — | | — | — | — | — |
| 15 | * | | 2009 | Democratic | | |
| 15 | | | 2017 | Republican | | |
Defunct departments
The departments are listed in order of their establishment.
| # | Secretary | Position | Year
appointed | Party | Administration | |
| 1 | — | | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | — | | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | — | | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | — | | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | * | | 1953 | Republican | | |
| 5 | | | 1979 | Democratic | | |
