Obama answers only female reporters' questions at year-end press conference

            President Barack Obama ended his final press conference of the year by giving reporters something to talk about. He answered eight questions, from eight female reporters.

Though the president did not announce that he’d be calling solely on women, the move seemed deliberate as he passed over the typically attention-grabbing front row of mostly network TV correspondents to hear from Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown, Cheryl Bolen of Bloomberg, Julie Pace with the Associated Press, Lesley Clark from McClatchy, Reuters Roberta Rampton, the Wall Street Journal’s Colleen McCain Nelson and Juliet Eilperin with the Washington Post.

As the press conference came to a close, a male reporter asked about the president’s New Year’s resolutions. Obama ignored him and called on April Ryan from American Urban Radio, who had a question about race relations.

The historic significance of Obama’s ladies-only round of questioning is evidenced by the excitement and buzz it generated on Twitter before the press conference had even ended.

“See how newsy press conferences can be when women ask the questions?” PBS NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill tweeted. The questions hit at topics such as North Korea’s involvement in the cyberhack on Sony PIctures and the U.S. decision to rekindle its relationship with Cuba.

“Last question says the president. Every journalist he called on in this press conference was a woman. Mom is somewhere smiling,” tweeted CBS political director John Dickerson.

C-SPAN tweeted a composite screen grab of the reporters who got to ask questions.