Hillary Clinton Says Half Of Her Cabinet Will Be Women

Hillary Clinton promised Monday that if she wins the race for the White House, half of her Cabinet will be composed of women.

During MSNBC's town hall with Clinton Monday night, host Rachel Maddow asked the former secretary of state how her Cabinet might look, citing Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who picked an equal number of women and men for his Cabinet following his election in November.  

“[Trudeau] promised when he took office that he would have a cabinet that was 50 percent women, and then he did it. He made good on his promise," Maddow said. "Would you make that same pledge?”

"I am going to have a Cabinet that looks like America, and 50 percent of America is women," Clinton replied.

Maddow then asked Clinton if that was a "yes," to which Clinton nodded.

Clinton has indicated before that she's in favor of a Cabinet with equal parts men and women. Earlier this month, she told Cosmopolitan that since "we are a 50-50 country, I would aim for a 50-50 Cabinet."

If Clinton is elected as president, it would be a historic first for the nation. Her campaign has also indicated that she could make history again by choosing a female running mate -- perhaps even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), which The Boston Globe floated as a possibility in a recent article.

A gender-balanced Cabinet would be another historic first for the country. President Barack Obama's current Cabinet is made up of about 25 percent women. 

While a strong majority of Americans -- 75 percent -- say women and men make equally good political leaders, women remain underrepresented in "virtually all" elected offices in the nation, a recent Pew study found.

The first female Cabinet member was Francis Perkins, appointed as secretary of labor by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. But it would take 20 years for the second woman to get a Cabinet position, when Oveta Culp Hobby was appointed as the nation's first secretary of health, education and welfare.