Most newspaper columnists are men. This is true in Australia and elsewhere. Recently New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd examined why this is. read here In the US the debate is now swirling around whether it’s the numbers of women that matter or what they have to say. Do we want more right-wing women? (The Margaret Thatcher argument?) Dowd has been attacked for just concentrating on numbers rather than content as, for instance, in the eline daily journal alternet. read here Here in Australia the Sydney Morning Herald’s Miranda Devine has also weighed into the debate, claiming that she received more criticisms from women than she does from men. read what Miranda said My own experience is that whenever I write a newspaper column (which is not very often these days) I receive far more criticisms from men than from women. I still cannot believe some of the things some men feel able to say from behind the anonymity of an email address. The level of vituperation and use of obscenities is quite startling. Maybe if we had more women columnists, these men would just get used to it.
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WHY ARE THERE SO FEW WOMEN COLUMNISTS?3 comments to WHY ARE THERE SO FEW WOMEN COLUMNISTS? |
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It is also interesting that the percentage of women published in the letters section of Australia’s dailies is substantially less than those of men – by my reckoning (and even being generous in relation to those whose gender is unspecific in their letter), the number of women vs men published stands at about 20:80. I wonder if it is really that women have so little to offer in the way of opinion, or whether there is some sub-conscious or even conscious decision making on the part of letters editors that women’s opinions are not as relevant as men’s.
Whichever of these it is, it doesn’t translate well for women, given that the letters pages are one of the few places where the general populace can sensibly voice a public opinion about current affairs.
I actually raised this with the SMH letters editor fairly recently but have had no response.
It is also interesting that most of the letters selected that comment on my articles are negative. I received well over 100 responses via my website to my article on Tony Abbott on February 25 with at least 90 per cent of them being favourable and supportive of what I’d said. The SMH published five letters, 4 of them critical. Most of the attacks I get are from men. I have never had a woman attack me in the way some men feel they can (use of cursing etc). Those women who do attack me tend to write to me privately rather than to the paper, and to be against me on religious grounds, especially n the abortion issue.
I am wondering if this has less to do with gender and more to do with gender representations. I have written articles for The Age and The Australian, the news editor adivsed me that he liked the articles, but he was “chockers” with news that day. The opinion editor, in an article outlining the dramatic lack of cohesion in the feminist movement, also thanked me for the article, and said “I will see what I can do. It is a tight week this week with the budget.” Is this because womens issues are not considered newsworthy, or is it because the content is not politicaly correct for that publication? If it is an article (by a woman) telling women to stop whinging, it seems to get immediate press!