You know the photo (very popular in e-mails), Katrina vanden Heuvel surrounded by her Nation writing staff. A new issue arrives, March 19th, and proves that The Nation can actually improve their male-to-female byline ratio if they relegate women to the back section of the rag!!
EDITORIALS & COMMENT
"Rushed Primaries" (unsigned)
Robert L. Borosage's "When's The Idea Primary?"
David Cole's "There Is No Law"
Clint Hendler's "TNR's New Owners"
Three article signed, three male bylines.
Score: 3 males, 0 females
COLUMNS
Calvin Trillin's "Backsliders Try to Please the Right . . ."
Alexander Cockburn's "The Persecution of Sami Al-Arian"
Score: 2 males, 0 females
ARTICLES
Christian Parenti's laughable "Iraq: Who Will Get The Oil?"
Alex de Waal's "The Wars Of Sudan"
Ari Berman's "K Street's Favorite Democrat"
Score: 3 males, 0 females
CRITICS
Adam LeBor's "Blah, blah, blah" (really, come up with titles for the book reviews)
Maria Margaronis' "The Bastard of Istanbul"
Ange Mlinko's "The Children's Museum"
D.T. Max' ". . . With I Could Be There . . ." (see previous parenthetical)
Score: 2 males, 2 females
Total Score For This Issue: 10 males, 2 females
Year to date score: 112 males, 30 women
By offering less pieces this edition and by including a poem by a woman and a book review by a woman (they aren't too good at "Comment" apparently), the rag manages to get 3.7 males for every single female byline. Sadly, for them, that's a huge improvement.
The lack of women being featured in the magazine was brought to C.I.'s attention by a group of women late in 2006. For a column at Polly's Brew, C.I. went back and compiled the stats for that year. What we had discussed was following 2007's issues each time they arrived in the mailbox. Ava and C.I. were in charge of the December 24, 2006 edition and that was the first week that a 2007 issue had arrived (January 1, 2007 issue). They immediately started up "The Nation Stats." "The Nation Stats" ran again in our December 31st edition (covering the magazine's January 8, 2007 issue -- a "double issue"). January 21st, we covered the January 22nd issue in "The Nation Stats." Last week, "The Nation Stats" covered two issues since two arrived the same day for three of us participating in this feature. February 4th, we covered the Feb 12th issue in "The Nation Stats." February 11th we covered the February 19th issue in "The Nation Stats." February 25th, we coved the February 26th issue in "The Nation Stats." March 4th we covered the March 5th and March 12th issues of the magainze in "The Nation Stats."