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I lost myself in the moment and found myself for a lifetime
The facts speak for themselves. Women are woefully underrepresented in newsrooms globally.
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39% are journalists.
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Only 26% are in journalism leadership.
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Women of color represent about 8% of U.S. print newsroom staff, 6% of local radio staff, & about 13% of local TV news staff.
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Women are constantly discredited.
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Women and girls are the subject of fewer than 20% of news stories.
It's personal: "You have too much power," the general manager told me. "I want to give the hosting job to a younger woman." Then, he fired me from the public affairs program that I founded and hosted for several years. After a series of younger women sat at the mic, the permanent role was given to a white, middle-aged male for the next 12 years, until the program ended in 2020.
It's political: A publisher recently said he would run my Op-Ed about the politics of abortion if I deleted a few particular lines – the central thread of the piece. "It's too personal," he said.
Action: Here, in my 7th decade, I decided to launch My Op-Eds to publish Fax Machines and Abortion because the personal is political. II'll be posting about politics, the arts, education, friendship, love – issues that grab my attention. As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, "It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent."
In 1990, I ran part of NARAL NC's PAC to elect Harvey Gantt. Hoping to become the first Black senator from the south since reconstruction, he was running to defeat Jesse Helms, the staunchly anti-choice senator who held that office for 17 years, and, launched his career delivering daily racist and anti-gay rants on television. That campaign taught me a lot about what we can do to get Roe V Wade codified into federal law.
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