It's An Epidemic!

Just when I thought it was safe to get back to whining and complaining about my personal life, I found out there is yet another gender battleground forming, this time about the under-representation of women in OP-ED writing. Not that this comes as any surprise. The glass ceilings that were crushing us back in the 70s when I first entered the work world have not shattered in the interim. They may have been nudged up a bit by the sheer force of the weight of the women smashing up against them, but they are still there. However, I've tried to believe that in profession of writing we had come a long way since the days when women wrote under male pen names in order to be taken seriously. Now I read, in articles by Maureen Dowd (Op-Ed Columnist: Dish It Out, Ladies) and Elizabeth Spiers (Adventures in Opinion Writing: No Easy Answers) that women are just not getting the newspaper ink that men get when it comes to OP-ED columns. Some say, women may just not be interested in writing tough, topical, controversial columns. Well, I'm raising my hand. Attention Editors: if your newspaper OP-ED section looks like the smoking lounge in an all-male club, call me. I'm available. And that offer also extends to those of you looking for a humorist now that Dave Barry has gone into repeats. I'm flexible.