Women Have Opinions?

In 2005,  Brown University’s student newspaper ran a piece  entitled “Do women have opinions?”  What prompted it  was a concern  about the sparsity of female voices  on the paper’s opinion page.  Even though  the editors   had beat the bushes trying to find female writers,  male writers continued to dominate the paper’s opinion page by a wide margin.

School newspapers aren’t the only media outlets with a dearth of women’s voices.  Earlier this year, the NY Times reported that “Many opinion page editors at major newspapers across the country report that 65 or 75 percent of unsolicited manuscripts, or more, come from men.”  At the Washington Post, 80 to 90 percent of op-ed submissions come from men.

There has been much conjecture about why women are so reluctant to voice their opinions in print.  Author and activist Catherine Orenstein decided  it was because women didn’t know how to write op-eds, so she has been traveling around the country conducting workshops to teach them how.
 

Others have different theories about the shortage of women’s voices on the opinion page of papers and on the internet.  Some think it all boils down to one thing:    women just aren’t cut out to be opinion writers.  In order to speak out publicly on a controversial issue, you must be able to stand the heat.  Women, so the thinking goes, are uncomfortable subjecting themselves to public ridicule or abuse.

That may be why the few female writers who pop up on the op-ed page of my hometown newspaper, the Greece Post, seldom if ever express any opinions that could anger anyone.  Instead, they write about subjects such as the challenges of a family roadtrip (boredom, kids fighting, the toilet seats in Thruway restrooms) or how cute little kids are in church (They pick their noses and say silly things.).

When women dare to write what they think about more controversial issues, things can get dicey.     Maureen Dowd is an authority on  this subject.  Six months after Dowd was  hired to write a column for the opinion page of the NY Times, she went to her boss and tried to quit.  She told him she was “a bundle of frayed nerves”  and that she was tired of being shot at.
 

“I wanted to be liked--not attacked,” Dowd said.

One thing Dowd learned quickly, writing her column,  was that men are much more likely to  take offense at women expressing opinions in print than they are at men.

Dowd has a theory about why this is so:

        In my experience, guys don’t appreciate
        being lectured by women.  It taps into
        myths of carping Harpies and hounding
        Furies, and their distaste for nagging by
        wives and mothers....

Salon columnist Joan Walsh has noticed a similar phenomenon with women writing on the web.  According to Walsh, women are much more likely to experience  abuse than men simply because they are women. Ms. Walsh has an extensive collection of unsavory diatribes aimed at her by men who have taken issue with one  opinion or another that  she has expressed on her blog.

Last May, Walsh devoted  a whole column to Kathy Sierra, a blogger who wrote about computer technology, a subject often thought of as a male domain.  After a steady barrage of venom hurled at her by male critics (including threatening messages involving nooses), Sierra closed down her blog, silencing herself.

Maureen Dowd and Joan Walsh have  both ventured out of the sugar-and-spice-and-everything-nice mode to brave voicing strong opinions in public, criticizing the people in power.  So, what advice do these two women give to others who have some trepidation about following in their paths?

Maureen Dowd offers this tip:   When she needs to work up the nerve to write a tough column,  she tries to “conjure up an image of Emma Peel in a black leather catsuit, giving a kung fu kick...” to anyone who disagrees with her.

As for Joan Walsh, she tells women writers who are upset about criticism to either “get a thicker skin or stop reading it.” Basically, she says, I tell them “to man up.”

Okay, girls, let’s man up, shall we?  The public is waiting with bated breath for all our strong opinions.

Comments

[oldiebutgoodie]

Men don't like to be beaten at any game and they don't plan on being one-upped by a woman in print. There still is advice for women trying to find men to let them win, don't be smarter etc. We definitely need to toughen up little girls and teenagers. How???? Most parents don't want their daughters to make waves. Sigh. And we need to teach boys that girls are suitable competition, and that losing to a girl is not a shameful thing.