Check out this article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, “Where Are the Queens of Nonfiction?” by Anne Trubek, an associate professor of rhetoric and composition at Oberlin College. It’s excellent. And majorly depressing. Trubek riffs on the title of Ira Glass’ new book, The New Kings of Nonfiction, an anthology intended to commemorate and canonize our current golden age of nonfiction writing. Writes Trubek,

Huh? Glass is a trailblazing icon of alternative, indie culture, a very with-it, 21st-century guy. What was he thinking? Why did he choose a gender-specific title for his book?

She goes on to do some byline counting:

A few years ago, two women — Ruth Davis Konigsberg, a writer and former editor at Glamour, and Elizabeth Merrick, director of a women’s literary reading series — tallied the ratio of male to female contributors at those four magazines on their own Web sites. The numbers called attention to a significant gender disparity. According to Konigsberg, on womentk.com, during a 12-month period (from September 2005 to September 2006), there were 1,446 men’s bylines and 447 women’s bylines. At Harper’s, the ratio was nearly seven to one, at The New Yorker four to one, and at The Atlantic 3.6 to one.

I did my own tally. From May 2007 through May 2008, Harper’s published 232 men and 51 women (a ratio of about 4.5 to one) and The Atlantic published 158 men to 49 women (a ratio of about three to one). In 2008, The New Yorker has published 185 men and 51 women (about 3.5 to one). Things are not getting much better.

Then analyzes what does make it into print:

As disheartening as those statistics are, closer inspection of what women do publish in such magazines makes the disparity even more disturbing. Many of the women’s contributions are not features. (At The New Yorker, they might be a Talk of the Town piece, a poem, a cartoon, or a dance review.) And many are about being a woman. For example, the March 2008 issue of The Atlantic contains three substantial pieces by women. One, by Eliza Griswold, is both political and reported, and it does not integrate her personal experience. But the other two use personal experiences to make claims about women’s lives. And in an almost absurd twist, both argue that women should start settling for less.

That other Atlantic piece of course is “Marry Him! The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough,” by Lori Gottlieb.

For a great analysis of what gives, read the rest.

Taking time out from prep for next week’s bridaldom, I will be on Pacifica Radio tonight (in Houston, KPFT, 90.1 FM ) at 9pm ET tonight discussing media sexism and the election, particularly in light of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. If in Houston, tune in! If not, I’ll post the web link (which stays live for 60 days) here soon. The program is the Progressive Forum, with host Lillian Care. Joining me will be Isabelle McDonald of FAIR.

Instead of going dark while off doing wedding and honeymoon during the last two weeks of July, I’m pleased to announce some rather FABULOUS guest posting coming our way! Claire Mysko and Gloria Feldt will be among the lineup, with some live blogging from BlogHer and some posts about the election. The fearless Kristen Loveland of The Choice will be blogsitting (and crossposting!) for me while I’m away.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to open the doors wide open to the GWP community. Your comments are always so smart and insightful, your emails always teach me. I’d love to bring more GWP readers into fuller view. So here’s the chance. If you have an idea for a guest post and would like to run it by me before I take off, please email me at girlwpen@gmail.com. The last day I’ll be checking email will be July 17.

That was a line my classmates at the University of Michigan used to throw around — though I think it went “Oh How I Hate Ohio State.” Not that I ever cared much about football (sorry Wolverines). But this just in from Nancy Polikoff is making me hate Ohio this morning indeed. Writes Nancy:

Ohio will vote on a paid sick leave initiative that doesn’t recognize unmarried partners, let alone the full range of people’s relationships. Given that there is an excellent model out there in the rules for federal employees right now and the proposed federal Healthy Families Act, it is not utopian to imagine something much better than what the Ohio folks are asking for.

Read more over at Nancy’s blog, Beyond Gay and Straight Marriage. And ok, Ohioans (Sam?!): defend yourselves.

Registration is now OPEN! This course will run for 5 Tuesdays this fall: 10/7, 10/14, 10/21, 10/28, 11/4 from 7pm-9:15pm ET. Deets below. Click that little button that looks like a flag top right to enlarge. If you’d like a copy of this flyer emailed to you, please contact Kristen (kristen.loveland@gmail.com) and she’ll send it your way.

Oh nooo – is it true? I don’t want to believe it’s true. Say it’s not. Anyone?

Obama Botches the Abortion Conversation
7/8/08 Alternet.org: One thing is certain: Obama has backhandedly given credibility to the right-wing narrative that women who have abortions — even those who go through the physically and mentally wrenching experience of a late-term abortion — are frivolous and selfish creatures who might perhaps undergo this ordeal because they are “feeling blue.”

And this next one too–Stepford v. Angry Black Woman? Oy. Make it stop!

Rocky Journey To Being First Lady
7/8/08 Baltimore Sun: In the way we have of boiling human beings down to a handful of adjectives and then forming a caricature from those adjectives, Obama has become the angry black woman and McCain, a Stepford wife.

Lastly, just in case you haven’t had enough bad news for one morning, here’s this:

Women at Work Find Reinforced Glass Ceiling
7/8/08 Women’s eNews: Promotion barriers, harassment, pregnancy and motherhood bias, unequal pay. Women in the paid work force say these are all pillars propping up a glass ceiling. Fourth in “The Memo” series on the status of U.S. women.

Kudos for the tips on all this cheeriness today go to Rebekah at the WMC.

Image cred

This just in from The Huffington Post, where I occasionally post commentary when I feel like not getting paid. Publishing at HuffPo is a great opportunity for exposure, but for working journalists, well, let’s just say I’ve slowed down my contributions over time. Nevertheless, it is a WONDERFUL opp for visibility and I can’t recommend it enough for those seeking to break into print. So here’s the announcement about their new initiative, because I definitely want to help them spread the word (and because I hugely admire the new initiative’s clever logo, and because I recently met — and loved — Eat the Post editor Rachel Sklar!):

It’s the electoral race of the century. Political maps are being redrawn, and rules are getting rewritten across the board. Fundraising records have been broken. The candidates are even comparing the sizes of their email lists.

The mainstream media is tripping over itself to report on every last press release and campaign announcement. But do any of us REALLY know what’s going on?

With you helping from the frontlines, the Huffington Post can change campaign coverage. OffTheBus is HuffPost’s citizen-powered and -produced election site, and we’re depending on readers like you to tip us to what’s going on or, better yet, to write up the stories you think should be covered.

WOULD YOU HELP US?
Chances are you’re a political junkie. That’s why you got involved in HuffPost’s community as a commenter. But why stop there?

By becoming a member of HuffPost’s OffTheBus, you can publish op-eds and news stories to the Huffington Post. You get first-hand access to editors. The best citizen reporting is cross-posted to the politics page and homepage. Or, you can jump into our collaborative reporting assignments, like our Superdelegate Investigation or OffTheBus Party Map.

GET PUBLISHED AT HUFFINGTON POST.
Last October OffTheBus members dropped in on Sen. Barack Obama’s Nationwide Canvassing Day from more than two dozen locations. Hours later every observer independently relayed to us that the economy, not the war, was the voting issue. Twenty-four hours later we reported on the significance of the economy, beating the mainstream media to the punch by a few weeks.

As our numbers grow, the same collaborative reporting model that got HuffPost’s OffTheBus the scoop on the economy may tell us a lot more about what’s happening nationwide.

YOU GAME? JOIN HUFFPOST’S OFFTHEBUS.
Click here to sign up.

In August, Women, Power and Politics (aka the online exhibit qua very creative webjournal of the International Museum of Women) will look at how women have created recipes for democracy around the world. They’re seeking fresh thoughts, in a variety of forms, on women creating democracy. Submit your creative work by July 15 to be considered for the August focus. To learn more, visit www.imow.org/submissions.

Other of their upcoming submissions categories:

• September: Why is Voting Important?
• October: Women Running for Office
• November: Women Working Together Across Borders

Deadlines for submissions categories vary. Visit www.imow.org/submissions to find the latest date that you can submit work.

And speaking of family pics, this is my uncle, Norm “MadDawg” Siegel, musician extraordinaire! For those of you in sweet home Chicago, MadDawg will be playing on July 13 at Bill’s Blues Bar (1029 Davis, Evanston) at 7pm. He’ll be cutting loose with a mix of some of Chicago’s best singer songwriters from the great Folk era of the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Following Norm will be Jim Fine, a former Evanstonian singer songwriter and guitarist.

And since I can’t seem to refrain from wedding blogging, one more tidbit about Norm: he has taken time out to learn acoustic renditions of Dodi Li and and Erev Shel Shoshanim (Jewish wedding tunes) that Marco and I picked out and will be playing us down the aisle A WEEK FROM THIS COMING SUNDAY. What an uncle, huh?!

So Marco and I are digging up childhood pictures in honor of that age-old sappy of sappies tradition: the wedding slide show. This is me, pretending to read, and caught in the act. Goodness knows where I got the hat.