A new study finds that women make up a mere 14% of the guests on the Sunday morning political talk shows.
In other words, politcal talk shows look a lot like Congress.
The study notes that 56 percent of the episodes do not include even one woman.
As Marie Wilson of the White House Project observes, "The morning shows don't just use people as experts, they make people into experts."
Joan Ryan's piece in the San Francisco Chronicle offers a good analysis of the problem:
One need only listen to the weekly interviews and discussions -- the dearth of ideas, the ponderous iteration of solutions that haven't worked, the recycled assumptions that rattle inside the beltway like a shoe in a dryer -- to know that women aren't at the table.
The more we can see and hear women who have been anointed on television as serious commentators and authorities, the more confidence the public will have in voting women into Congress and someday the White House. And the more we hear from knowledgeable women, the greater the range of ideas and perspectives pouring into the political marketplace -- thus the more likely we are to make inroads on problems that have not responded to traditional solutions.
In more ways than anyone can possibly count, traditional solutions are not working. But when problems are defined and solutions devised at a table that excludes and trivializes the perspectives of women, what else can we realistically expect?
More info at: Shesource.org
Feminism gender Politics misogyny discrimination Patriarchy
