What NYT’s Firing of Jill Abramson Tells Us About Sexism in America

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.