One thing jumps out of the list of new appointees Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn has announced so far: Only one of the seven new appointments announced today—executive assistant Allison Burson—is a woman. That brings the total number of new female McGinn appointees to two (for a total of four women on his staff, including two who are already members of Mayor Nickels' team), compared to eight male staffers.

Moreover, those eight men are all in top-level positions (State Legislative Director, Director of External Affairs, Director of Communications, Office of Intergovernmental Relations Director... ); the women, in contrast, include two city liaisons (the two Nickels reappointments) and McGinn's executive assistant. Chief of staff Julie McCoy, in other words, is the only woman in a high-level position in the McGinn administration.

After the November election, McGinn's "ambassadors" chose diversity as one of the top things they were looking for in his administration. And, at least on racial diversity, he's delivered: Both his deputy mayors, for example, are people of color. Asked why McGinn has appointed so few women to his inner circle so far, McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus responded: "The transition is still on-going and more announcements are forthcoming.  To make a judgment about the demographic makeup of the McGinn administration would be premature before our staffing decisions have been completed." Pickus also pointed out that McGinn has appointed a woman, Beth Goldberg, as head of his budget office. (The fate of at least two more prominent female Nickels appointees, transportation director Grace Crunican and housing director Adrienne Quinn, remains uncertain.)

Nickels has 15 staffers in all; two-thirds of those are women. It's still unclear how many staffers McGinn plans to add to the 12 he has announced so far.