Zzzzzzz.

The "where are the women" debate has flown from the blogosphere to the university to the newspaper columnists. Now the question is "where are the women columnists." While I'm driven to read every piece on this topic, I'm also repelled. I just don't think it serves us very well.

Via Bitch PhD, Dahlia Lithwick in Slate reviews the "where are the women columnist" debate.

I don't buy for a minute one line of argument that has followed the debate around to the various venues. That women don't like the serious work of science or the rough and tumble nature of politics.

Women don't like arguments?!!! Please. I fight with my mother every other day. "You're not listening to me, mother! Would you please stop talking for a minute?" Every woman I know fights with her mother at least one a week. And not polite little disagreement, but all out bickering sometimes ending in a slammed phone. My husband has never raised his voice to his parents.

Even if women were programmed to choose other paths away from the sciences and politics, then that's the way it is. To say that they are genetically inferior because they work differently is very offensive.

The biological argument is ridiculous. I'm not sure that I buy the formal sexism argument either. That newspaper editors are shutting out women. Maureen Dowd's column is consistently the most popular e-mailed article for the Times every week. She's big business for the Times. Two Dowds would be even better. No, I don't buy the formal sexism thing.

The informal obstacles of family obligations could be playing a large role. If having more women in places of power is important to us as a society, then serious changes need to be made in that department.

Mostly all this talk distracts us. I'm not sure why I feel the need to talk about women's representation in the sciences, academia, newspaper columns every time it comes up, because it takes me away from talking about something else. Few remedies are ever offered in these discussions. But lots of sermons. "Oh, why oh why am I so special and rare?" "Oh, why can't a woman be more like a man?"

Mostly, I brought up this topic again to point out to my fellow women that there's gold in those hills. The Slate columnist pointed out that she gets less pitches from women then men, especially argument based pitches. OK, get to work women. Send some pitches to Slate. They're looking for women writers.

This on-going timesome topic also brings up the power of blogosphere. It started here, as the Slate writer points out. Go bloggers! I think.

Comments

[Russell Arben Fox]

Henry Higgins! Oh man, what a great authority to bring up in this context. That's brilliant, Laura. I think Eliza Doolittle would bored and exasperated by all the hand-wringing and lame justifications which this debate prompts as well.

[Frolic]

Laura, you shouldn't share you insights about the editorial needs of Slate. You should silently note them and then immediately start pitching ideas to the site.