March 14, 2005

Bacon on the Wing

Yesterday Maureen Dowd penned a column bemoaning the paucity of female voices on the op-ed pages of our newspapers. After reading the reactions of two strong women bloggers who also happen to be conservatives, the best thing I can do is point you toward their posts and get out of the way.

From Elephants in Academe (which you should be reading regularly, but only if you like smart women):

I had believed that pigs would fly before I read, let alone linked to, another Maureen Dowd op-ed piece from the New York Times. . . . But today, the skies must be thick with bacon on the wing because I can't help thanking Ms. Dowd for proving our point about Larry Summers (see "Crying Wolf" 1/31/05) and linking to her article. . . .

But here's the beef, or rather the pork: Ms. Dowd concludes, "But I have no doubt there are plenty of brilliant women who would bring grace and guts to our nation's op-ed pages, just as, Lawrence Summers notwithstanding, there are plenty of brilliant women out there who are great at math and science. We just need to find and nurture them." I agree with Ms. Dowd that more women writers would improve the op-ed pages of America's newspapers. I'll come right out and say it: I would like to be one of them. But notice that clause that's inserted into her penultimate sentence: "Lawrence Summers notwithstanding". Wait just a minute.

Go to the elephants' site and see why.

Michelle Malkin also read Dowd, and she wonders why the Times grand dame looks at conservative women and sees, well, something besides women, if anything at all:

Oh, Our Lady of Perpetual Harp, women around the world are ever-so-grateful for your selfless courage. What would we shrinking violets in sisterhood have done without your personal journalistic sacrifice?

Michelle also conveniently lists some conservative women bloggers, all of whom qualify as women -- at least to women other than Maureen and her girlfriends.

— Winfield Myers

| Mar. 14, 2005 | 4:01 PM