I think there are plenty of tough women who could do this job.
No doubt. But things other than "toughness" are a factor...family situations, children, bad hours, continual pressure, the ability to move to DC and live in a rental unit, prior experience in the press relations business plus affinity with and loyalty to the Big Enchilada.
I'm open to other names I haven't thought of.....if you have two or three names, please post.
As I stated in my original post, there's undoubtedly a reason there's been no female press secretarys in the entire DC governmental/political history save for two, Perino (15 mos.) and Myers (24 mos.) whose combined tenures lasted a short 39 months in their jobs...and the reasons for this have nothing to do with sexism or mysogeny.
Leni