It comes as no surprise that opinion journalism seems troubled on the financial front (with fewer dollars for newspapers meaning less space for community editorial), but a lack of diversity of the part of those who author them largely goes unspoken. If the OpEd Project gets its way, however, women will start to contribute dramatically more than the 10 to 20 percent of opinion pieces they currently author.
After a few high profile newsmakers’ questioned female aptitude for intellectual pursuits–including Larry Summers’ controversial musings on women’s biology and Susan Estrich’s accusations that the LA Times’ editorial was sexist–Katie Orenstein founded the project as a way to see if changing the makeup of “gateway forums” could be teachable. The head of the nationwide organization explains that “the range of voices we hear from in the world is incredibly narrow, and comes from a tiny sliver of the world’s population: mostly western, white, older, privileged and overwhelmingly male. Which means we’re hearing from only a small fraction of the world’s brains–including very few women’s brains–which is a big problem for women and for all those of us who aren’t being represented – our stories and perspectives are not being told, sometimes with life and death consequences. But it also suggests a tremendous opportunity for all of us: what would be the return to society if we could harness all that brain power?”
I’m fascinated by this question and the longer term implications it might have on females being interviewed as experts in their fields more frequently. And in its efforts to get women to engage more with front door forums (op-ed pages and online communities included) the project will be offering its next training at the ACLU on Drumm Street this Sunday. Pick up your pens.