Maggie at The Feminist Underground alerts us to the fact that, of the three presidential and one vice-presidential debates this election cycle, only one will be moderated by a woman. Gwen Ifill will be posing the questions during the VP debate.

And here's where I hand it over to Maggie to hit you with the sad stats:

Ifill had the same job back in the 2004 debates. Turns out she's the only female involved in moderating since 1992.

What's even worse is that this isn't a big step forward for the debates, instead it's a big step back. The first televised debates were in 1960, and, not surprisingly, had no female moderators or panelists. But when the next debates came in 1976, there was a significant amount of female involvement. All four debates had a female panelist or moderator. All four women from that year are excellent role models, the kind of women who entered journalism at a time when it was a heavily male-dominated industry but went on to become highly successful reporters.

From 1976 to 1988, every debate had a female moderator or panelist. In 1992, three out of four had one or more women as a panelist or moderator. Barbara Walters appeared three separate times in those years.

She goes on to explain some of the changes that have taken place at the commission that controls the debate -- and how that's contributed to the notable lack of women moderators. Read the rest.

I'd argue there are just as many accomplished, serious women in broadcast news today as there were in the '70s and '80s. Sure, there's still an element of what Samantha Bee calls the "N.I.L.F." factor in network news. But there are also a lot of female political correspondents and analysts who are just as qualified to query the presidential candidates as the white-haired old men who were chosen for the job. For one, I nominate Candy Crowley. And, for the love of god, please give Gwen Ifill one of the presidential debates next time around. Don't relegate her to the VP slot.

1 Comments

August 11, 2008 9:58 PM

[0+|0-]  Habladora said:

A presidential debate hosted by Feministing would have some kick-ass moderators, and focus on important issues that usually get ignored. What do you say?

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