Vice President Mike Pence tweeted a photo from his meeting with President Donald Trump and other Republicans - the squad commonly referred to as the Freedom Caucus - in which they discussed proposed changes to the American Health Care Act, the Trump administration's bid to wind back Obamacare.

The meeting focused on whether the bill should include a repeal of "essential health benefits" that insurers must cover. Among those "benefits" are pregnancy related heath care, maternity and newborn care.

According to the photo, which was published via Pence's official White House social media account to his 3.21 million followers, there were no women present at the meeting. The only sliver of diversity was via the varied hues of red and blue ties worn by the attendees.

Like that time Trump signed the anti-abortion executive order while surrounded by men in suits, Pence's photo has attracted criticism from organisations like Planned Parenthood.

A Democrat Senator from rural Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar has previously spoken about a lack of women's voices in debates like this.

"During the health care debate, [Sen.] Debbie Stabenow's sitting at a table during a somewhat boring negotiation on the Finance Committee. And one of the male senators said, 'Well, I don't know why we would need maternity benefits in here. I've never used them. Why would they be mandatory?' And she says, 'I bet your mother did.'," she told Vox.

Like in most public (and private) offices, women in positions of power are rare.

Prior to last year's US election there had been 1917 male senators and just 46 female senators in American history, however in November the first Latina was elected to the Senate and the first Indian-American women won a seat in the House of Representatives.

A vote on "Trumpcare" has now been postponed in the US as some members of the President's party have refused to back his terms for reform Obamacare.