Given the ratio of male to female readers of the Guardian (57:43), this is the kind of distribution we ought to see on the letters page every day:
So, why so many women today, compared to every other day this week? Let's have a look at the issues covered:
At first glance, it looks like Tim might have had a point about letters from women only being published when they're about 'women's issues'.
But there are also three letters from women about the abolition of the 10p tax band. You could say this *is* a women's issue, because women tend to earn less, and therefore as a constituency they're more affected by the abolition - but it hasn't been positioned as one to date.
Viewed another way, today's distribution might suggest that women do in fact write letters to the editor on enough topics and in enough numbers for the Guardian to be able to represent its female readership (that's 43% of its readers) more fairly on the letters page.
Remember, the whole point of this exercise is to question the Guardian letters editor's assertion that the editorially-controlled letters page provides a better service to busy Guardian readers than the free-for-all of online commenting...
1 comment:
I'm not sure that Health and Safety Executive would normally be considered a 'women's issue' either - h&s would usually be considered tobe dominated by middle-aged men with clipboards, to be honest.
Clearly the House of Lords would only be of interest to men though - we don't get to be Lords...
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