December 13 update: The answer to the headline is “yes.” In unofficial returns Dec. 12, Alabama voters selected Doug Jones over Roy Moore.
If you’re wondering why so many men in media are being outed for sexual harassment, look no further than a fascinating article by Kathryn J. McGarr in today’s Washington Post.
McGarr says women in media – as in all industries in which the power structure is predominantly male – are not surprised. McGarr is a historian and teacher at the University of Wisconsin.
She recalls when President John F. Kennedy in 1961 pressured the National Press Club to allow women down from the balcony to cover events. It was 1966 before this happened, and 1971 before women were admitted to full membership. The NPC was founded in 1908.
McGarr suggests the NPC didn’t want women around because it interfered with the cozy relationship male reporters had with sources. Female reporters also were banned from the Gridiron Club and White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinners, apparently for fear they would make the proceedings public, thus “embarrassing” the guests.
Hard to believe?
Hopefully, people 50 years from now will struggle to understand a time when young, female reporters were harassed and silenced by their male mentors and bosses.
McGarr concludes: “We live in a ‘moment’ when women’s voices are being heard. The silence-breakers are the people of the year. But we also live in a moment, long in the making, when the nation’s tolerance for misogyny still seems boundless, and when a hatred of women’s voices persists.”
Maybe tomorrow starts today when voters in Alabama join Sen. Richard Shelby in saying, we “can do better” than Roy Moore. Stay tuned.