Jul 14 2008

Opening up the Opinion Pages

Women woefully underrepresented on newspaper opinion pages.

For much of the past 30 years, a debate has raged over the ideological bent of the country’s news outlets. Republicans attack the New York Times‘ op-ed page as a bastion of “liberal bias,” while Democrats decry the free-market conservatism that appears on the Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages. At the end of the day, however, most news and opinion outlets agree that both sides should be aired in a rational debate on the issues.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case when it comes to the gender divide.

Although the New York Times tried to remedy its so-called “balance problem” by hiring Weekly Standard editor William Kristol to produce a weekly column, the disparity between male and female representation on the paper’s opinion pages remains pronounced. During the first nine weeks of 2005, for example, only 17 percent of the paper’s opinion columns were produced by women.

The New York Times is hardly alone as an example of male-dominated opinion pages. During the same period, only 10 percent of the Washington Post’s opinion pieces came from women. The Los Angeles Times fared only marginally better at 20 percent over the same span.

Bringing women to the table

An article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle profiles one woman who is seeking to bridge the gap between women and the nation’s opinion pages. Catherine Orenstein, founder of “The Op-Ed Project,” argues that women are cheating themselves and the public by not airing their opinions in newsprint. “The time for not taking yourselves seriously is over,” she says.

Orenstein developed the Op-Ed Project as a way to bring women to the opinion pages, since the opinion pages obviously weren’t coming to them to solicit ideas. Her seminars teach women how to formulate a coherent argument, write catchy leads and pitch their submissions to the papers effectively. So far, the project has been roundly applauded for encouraging women to speak up and be heard.

Opinions and perspectives

If American democracy is a “marketplace of ideas,” then the nation’s op-ed pages are its most respected storefronts. The Chronicle article does a good job of explaining why:

Rutgers researcher Bob Sommer, who began his career as a Washington lobbyist, said there’s “no better” way to influence legislators than the opinion pages. “What I can definitely say is that it’s a great opportunity that is not being taken advantage of by women looking to have an impact on policy process. An equal share of the blame goes to people who aren’t submitting.”

So, while many millions of people maintain fresh, spirited blogs chronicling their perspectives on everything from the presidential race to American Idol, they rarely catch the eye of those who could actually shape events and circumstances to their liking. Consequently, they sacrifice the performative element of their writing; their opinions and ideas exist in a relative vacuum.

The opinion pages have long been dominated by academics and journalists, politicians and erudite celebrities. “Letters to the editor,” on the other hand, tend to be short, pithy blasts that allow little more than a claim and conclusion, leaving out the support and structure integral to a solid argument. And that’s what it takes to make it into the opinion pages: a compelling topic passionately and effectively argued.

What would happen if America’s millions of bloggers and letter writers were to heed Orenstein’s advice and begin taking themselves seriously?