White House Supports Lifting Combat Ban for Women

The White House presented itself on Thursday as little more than a bystander in the Pentagon’s decision to open up military combat roles to women, even though it may end up as one of the most enduring expansion of rights for women during President Obama’s administration.

Mr. Obama “fully supports” the decision by the departing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, at a briefing Thursday morning. But Mr. Carney seemed to suggest that it was not a decision that the White House reviewed extensively or that Mr. Obama had to formally approve.

“This is something he and Secretary Panetta have discussed over time,” Mr. Carney said. It was “not a directed decision but it’s certainly one that the president believes is appropriate.”

The decision comes at a sensitive moment for a White House under criticism for appointing white men to several high-profile cabinet-level vacancies as the president kicks off his second term. Mr. Obama has named men to take over as secretary of state, Treasury secretary and C.I.A. director as well as Mr. Panetta’s successor at the Pentagon, disappointing many women inside the administration. Mr. Obama is also preparing to name a man to be his new White House chief of staff.

But the president will formally announce later Thursday his selection of Mary Jo White, a former United States attorney, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Administration officials said the next director of the Office of Management and Budget may be Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who was deputy director of that agency under President Bill Clinton and is now president of the Walmart Foundation.

During his Inaugural Address earlier this week, Mr. Obama harked back to the origins of the women’s rights movement in the United States, mentioning Seneca Falls, and spoke out for pay equity. “Our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts,” he said.

He also mentioned in passing the reality that women already serve in combat, even if not formally allowed in certain jobs. “Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage,” he said.