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The New York Times' firing of its first female executive editor, Jill Abramson, who led her paper to eight Pulitzer victories in three short years, elicited howls of protests from her sister scribes. And with good reason. After changing his story several times, the publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, finally explained that the real reason Abramson—who had the gothic "T" of the Times tattooed on her back—got the boot was her "abrasive" and "high handed" management style which, as far as they are concerned, is sexism.
And they have a point. These same qualities, after all, would get men a big, fat raise.
I note in The Week:
[M]uch of the agenda of American feminists—wage gap, not enough female CEOs, tax payer-covered birth pills, and, the emerging cause celeb, the absence of paid menstrual leave—strikes me as special pleading masquerading as gender justice. (What's next? All expenses paid bikini waxes?) But sexism—holding women to different behavioral standards than men—is a genuine issue in America, especially in workplaces. For weird and complicated reasons, it's an even worse problem here than it is in my native country, India, the land of sex-selective abortions, dowry deaths, and arranged marriages.
Go here to read the whole thing.
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