Saturday, December 26, 2009

Ellen Goodman is retiring

Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman is retiring. She says that a lot has changed in the 40 years that she's been a journalist.
Today, half the law students and medical students are female. But only 15 of the Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. We had the first serious female candidate run for president ... and lose. We had a mother of five, a governor and a Title IX baby run for vice president ... as a conservative.

The Equal Rights Amendment was defeated because people were scared into believing that women could end up in combat. Now, nearly a quarter-million women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 120 have died, 650 have been wounded. But still no ERA.

What a story this has been to cover. Women now hold the majority of jobs ... because men have lost more of them. Women earn six out of 10 college degrees ... yet earn 77 cents for every male dollar.

I've kind of lost track of Ellen Goodman over the years, maybe because I don't read much mainstream news any more (even were I to subscribe to the Daily Oklahoman, they don't carry any columnists further to the left than say, George Will). But I think I'm going to miss her, and not just because it's a sign that I'm getting old that a columnist that I used to read regularly when I was in college has reached the age of retirement.

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