Women’s groups have begun a “Cabinet Watch” to keep track of how many women Obama actually selects to lead in his administration. Until recently, the picture looked pretty bleak. Obama had appointed only four women out of 16 announced cabinet positions. That score should improve today when Obama will announce his pick to head the SEC: veteran regulator. Mary L. Schapiro, will be the first woman to chair the SEC on more than an interim basis.

Once dismissed by the head of the Chicago Board of Trade as a “blond, 5-foot-2-inch girl,”and dissed by then New York state Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer….. remember him, the guy whose career imploded along with his resignation as Governor of New York in a call girl scandal?  Schapiro has risen  through hard work and tough, smart moves to the top of the heap.  Sound familiar?

Schapiro has gained respect for her investor first principles, her willingness to listen and an exemplary record of expelling crooks and cracking down on unsavory practices and sales abuse. Something the current SEC has notably failed to do. Certainly they failed to detect Bernard L. Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme and failed to provide effective oversight of the kind of abuses that led to the current financial collapse. I mean, that was the SEC’s job, right?

In a recent speech, Schapiro said “Clearly, our regulatory system failed to compensate for the failures of market discipline and failed to appreciate the interdependencies of financial institutions and the risks they shared. The system did not allow regulators to stay ahead of this crisis and prevent it from ever occurring.”

So, the “old boys club” has had their shot at regulating the markets and look where that got us. In a mind boggling recession and still headed South.  As has been said, a woman has to be twice as good to get the same job as a man.  Now, at last, a woman has a chance to go in and straighten out the mess we’re in.  She’s done it before. My bet is, she will do it again.  I certainly wish her well.  And chalk up another first for women.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Commentary: Where was the SEC?
• Bernard Madoff ‘fraud’: Top regulator SEC admits it failed to act
• Madoff Once Bragged Of Profits To SEC
• SEC Chairman Says Agency Failed to Probe Madoff
• S.E.C. Issues Mea Culpa on Madoff
• SEC’s Cox admits ‘failures’ over Madoff