The New York Times needs to do much better!

(Courtesy of equalrepresentation.org)

Today I received email alerts from The New York Times, CNN and The Miami Herald reporting that Christine Lagarde had become the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - but the Times was the only one that did NOT mention that she is the first woman to head the IMF in the text of the email.

What's with those people? Do they have something against mentioning gender or gender imbalance. Is it wrong to inform/remind readers that women are grossly under-represented in leadership positions, including the United States Congress? They are not doing us any favors!

In November-December 2005, I communicated with them multiple times regarding New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's appointment of someone to replace him in the U.S. Senate - asking them to not only mention the lone woman (State Senator Nia Gill) being considered, but to report that New Jersey did not have even one woman in Congress. They finally mentioned Gill, but not that the women of NJ were not represented in Congress...let alone suggest that this must change.

"Why couldn’t or wouldn’t The New York Times address the lack of representation for women in New Jersey? Is it considered taboo, irrelevant or somehow unfair to bring up the disgraceful lack of women in Congress when discussing appointments or elections? How are the voters able to consider an issue they are consistently not informed about? Meanwhile, New Jersey still sends not one woman to the U.S. Congress." ("The Truth About the Political Status of U.S. Women: What are we going to do about it", p.9 - an eBook by Paula Xanthopoulou that can be accessed on smashwords.com.)

The New York Times needs to do much better!

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