Women on the op-ed pages

Though the dozens of feminist blogs I've been exposed to this weekend at the Women, Action and the Media conference would appear to indicate otherwise, women are actually extremely underrepresented when it comes to opinion writing. Women's op-ed submissions to mainstream newspapers make up a slim 15 percent of the total. That's according to Catherine Orenstein, a writer and commentator who founded the Op-Ed Project, an organization devoted to training and encouraging women to submit op-eds to local and national publications.

Orenstein presented at a Women, Action and the Media session this morning, and she explained her struggle to convince women that they, too, can write op-eds.

"Women say they think it is immodest or self-promoting or irresponsible [to posit themselves as experts on a topic]. This selflessness is promoted as a virtue. But what I see happening is an abuse of those qualities. It is selflessness to the point of abnegation. What is the cost to society of all those people not weighing in? Don't we have a responsibility to share? Aren't we citizens in this democracy and don't we owe it to public knowledge to share what we have got?"

Orenstein's short term vision, she says, is to up the number of female submissions from 15 to 33 percent. That will take another 15,000 women submitting this year. And, it turns out, op-ed writing is no insurmountable task. Just follow Orenstein's tips and tricks, as listed on her web site, and you'll be on your way. -Naomi