I took this from the homepage of the Op/Ed Project:
The op-ed pages of our nation’s newspapers are overwhelmingly dominated—80% or more—by men. Because the op-ed pages feed all other media, the under-representation of women here perpetuates and exaggerates the under-representation of women in larger ways. For example, men are:
In short, public debate all but excludes half the population.• 84% of guests on influential Sunday morning political talk shows on TV
• 85% of Hollywood producers
• 85% of nonfiction books on The New York Times best-selling
• 85-90% of radio producers
• 84% of congress
And again in their own words, here is WHAT THE WORKSHOPS DO:
Since women currently do not submit op-eds with anywhere near the frequency that men do, we target and train women experts in all fields to write for the op-ed pages of major print and online forums of public discourse. We work with top universities, non-profits, corporations, women’s organizations and community leaders across the nation. We also offer seminars open to the public (women only) in major cities across the nation. Seminar participants are added to a database of women experts, connected with our community of writers and mentors, and go into a feeder system for op-ed, radio, television and other media venues.
BOTTOM LINE: We NEED to get more women to SUBMIT OP-EDS to even the playing fields. I am committed to trying--you know why? Because it's important!
Kudos to Katie for promoting this important message and for recognizing that we can make a change!!!