Adding a pinch of media drama to your Wednesday, SF Weekly scribe Erin Sherbert goes after her former employer, SF Examiner, accusing the editorial staff of sexism. It seems that the last nine hires in the Ex's newsroom have been all men -- white men, to be exact.
In full disclosure, your humble author previously worked at the Ex, and even then there was only a sparse amount of estrogen in the newsroom. But it was not nearly as mancentric as it is today. We did some research, and found that of a small staff of about 35 editorial workers, only eight are female.And none of these women have been recent hires -- all have worked there for longer than two years. So while some women have left in the last year, they are being replaced by male employees.
Their numbers, apparently, go well below the national average as well ("34 percent of newsroom staff nationwide [are] female"), which, yeah, probably isn't a good thing.
However, we should point out, as does Sherbert, the Examiner's executive editor Deirdre Hussey's possess a vagina. Which makes her a female. A powerful female at the Ex. (She's also a witty and talented editor, we might add.) So, you know, that's good.
On the flip side, Weekly commenter David Tracy adds: "Without male to female ratio data, quantity of applications, number of interviews and the results of said interviews, job offers and response to job offers, this article is shallow."
We'll update as the controversy (?) unfolds.
