At The OpEd Project, we’re concerned with the numbers. The authors of op-ed articles in our country’s top outlets are about 85% male, and because the op-ed pages feed all other media, the dearth of women’s voices is felt much more widely than in just the opinion pages. For example 83% of congress is male, 85% of Hollywood producers are male, 84% of Wikipedia entries are written by men. Our aim is to raise the voices of women nation-wide to a rousing chorus– and we think the world will be a better place for it. We want to make more than an emotional or intellectual impact in the lives of a handful of women, we want to see the number of women contributing to and shaping the world skyrocket!
It’s a new year, a new decade, and a fresh slate for women everywhere to start getting their voices out and their opinions into public discourse. In March, Princeton junior Amelia Thomas-DeVeaux will be coming on board to keep tabs on the nation’s bylines, as the newest OpEd Project intern (joining me, Ravenna Koenig–I’ve been here since mid-October interviewing editors and media-gatekeepers). Before Amelia comes on, I wanted to give you all a casual mini-assessment of 5 top news publications.
From January 1st- February 19th, the New York Times featured 169 opinion pieces, 34 of which were written by women (roughly 20%).
The Washington Post featured 280 opinion pieces, 54 of which were written by women (roughly 19%).
USA Today featured 261 opinion pieces, 49 of which were written by women (roughly 18.7%).
The LA Times featured 89 opinion pieces, 21 of which were written by women (roughly 23%).
In the month of February the Wall Street Journal published 50 opinion pieces, 10 of which were written by women (20%)– (by the way, Yay WSJ: I know this isn’t a big number, but it’s a big improvement from last check-in!)
We hope the newspapers do their part to improve these numbers, but at The OpEd Project, we’re not holding our breath for an invitation. Women: Submit! Let your voices be heard! We’ll continue to keep you posted on the bylines–check back in to see the tally over the next weeks!
Welcome Amelia!
2 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Re: female writers in DC Post: 10 of 50 is 20%, not 25% as on your site.
[...] survey last August and ended, 3 months later, in October. Ravenna Koenig, my fellow intern, did a mini-assessment of where women are in the world of op-eds since the beginning of 2010, and let me warn you – [...]