The XX Factor: What women really think.

Not missing entirely

True, Sam, my post, below, about the Mirror Awards is a tiny bit misleading. There are women on the list—four women, who won five of the 29 awards: Rachel Sklar, twice, Julia Klein, Evgenia Peretz, Megan Garber. Go girls!

So women aren't "missing" from the list, exactly. Except in the sense that China has more boys than girls—missing in the proper proportions. 

Is it that men are doing the best work? Or that men are getting the best assignments? Name a female media beat reporter in the high-end newspapers and mags. It's a cool beat. Why can't you think of one?

The Answer To E.J.'s Question of 'What's Missing'...Hint: It Isn't What You Think

E.J., you just asked what's missing from the list of finalists for the Mirror Awards just released by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Despite the finalists' names that you mentioned (Eric Alterman, Ken Auletta, Seth Mnookin, Clive Thompson, Mark Bowden, Charlie LeDuff and Richard Pérez-Peña), the answer is NOT that women are missing. Among the finalists you didn't call out: Rachel Sklar for her piece in the Huffington Post on a misleading Pentagon story in the New York Times; Evgenia Peretz for her Vanity Fair piece on James Frey; Megan Garber for her commentary for the Columbia Journalism Review.

It's fair to call out the gender imbalance of the list of finalists. There are 23 men and only five women, if you count repeat offenders like Eric Alterman and Rachel Sklar separately for each category in which they appear. But let's not pose a rhetorical question that implies that the list is devoid of women entirely when in fact what it's missing is much murkier: strict gender balance. And as we have already debated on the blog, maybe 50-50 boy-girl splits for all awards is not really a reasonable—or even admirable—goal. Give women an equal education; choose unbiased panels of judges. But after that, if the men are producing the best stuff, then go ahead and let the best man win.

What's missing from this awards list?

I just got this announcement via email: "Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications today announced 29 finalists in six categories in the third annual Mirror Awards competition honoring excellence in media industry reporting."

The winners include such media watchdogs as Eric Alterman, Ken Auletta, Seth Mnookin, Clive Thompson, Mark Bowden, Charlie LeDuff, and Richard Pérez-Peña.

But hmm... something is missing from this list ... whatever could it be?