There might be a glass ceiling for women in some government agencies

See Send the Breast Pump With the Defense Attaché. By JULIANNE SMITH, a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden, is the director of the Trans-Atlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.

"Statistics collected by the center bear out their stories. Only 20 percent of senior Pentagon staff positions and 30 percent of senior State Department positions are held by women. While over 50 percent of incoming Foreign Service officers are women, as of July 2016, only 36 percent of assigned ambassadors were women — and that number has since dropped.

Within the intelligence community, women account for about 38 percent of the total work force, but hold only 28 percent of senior positions and make up 18 percent of people hired at senior pay levels. At the F.B.I., women hold just 12 percent of the bureau’s 220 senior agent positions. At American think tanks working on foreign policy, women account for just 24 percent of policy experts and 33 percent of the leadership staff. Skewed gender representation also affects the media. A 2014 study found that among the top five Sunday morning political shows on television, 75 percent of all guests and 87 percent of all solo interviewees were men."