WASHINGTON — Rep. Barney Frank took a moment on the House floor this week to ask why there was such opposition to making Elizabeth Warren the head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Stating in public what some industry insiders have said in private, the Massachusetts Democrat said sexism was at least partly to blame.
"Part of it, I have to say, was gender bias," Frank said. "Along with Sheila Bair, recently departed as head of the FDIC, Ms. Warren encountered from some people — maybe unconsciously on their part — the notion that a very strong-willed woman with strong opinions might have a place but not in the financial sector."
Frank called Warren "a woman of great sense and of moderation, a woman who understands the market and was ready to help it function."
Warren's tenure at the bureau ended Friday; she will return to her position as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Bair, who departed as head of the FDIC on July 8, will join the Pew Charitable Trusts in September as a senior advisor.
"I regret the loss of both of them," Frank said.
