100 Percent Men | The Atlantic Wire
The new “100 Percent Men” Tumblr highlights “corners of the world where women have yet to tread” and aims to “shine a light” on the issue. New Republic reporter Lydia DePillis created the Tumblr earlier this month to show the gender disparity among higher-ups at news organizations, political groups, tech companies and more.
“[I] just wanted a place to collect the 100% men instances I’d noticed in a central place, and Tumblr’s generally acknowledged as the best platform to do that,” she told Poynter.
Many of the posts include photos that show how male (and white) the executives of some companies are. Other posts highlight media-related “Boys Clubs”:
- “Everyone to ever serve as editor-in-chief of The New Republic.”
- “Top editors and reporters at Talking Points Memo.”
- “All the bylines in the April 29th issue of The New Yorker. (h/t @annfriedman)”
- Every annual award given by the National Sportscaster and Sportswriters Association, ever, along with the entire board.
DePillis said she plans to continue adding media-related posts to the Tumblr.
“I almost got the ownership of the biggest US papers, but for Gannett, which is headed by a woman,” she said. “I also suspect that there are a lot of positions, like theater critic and sports editor, that have never been held by women, but those are harder to prove (there aren’t typically Wikipedia lists).”
DePillis says she hasn’t done a lot to promote the Tumblr. But people have nevertheless discovered it.
“A bunch of blogs have written about it [and] there’s a constant stream of commentary on Twitter,” she said. “The Tumblr has 2,128 followers. There’s now a German version.”
The Atlantic Wire talked with DePillis about her hopes for the Tumblr:
DePillis conceded the possibility that the forum might lead to more superficial advancements. “What I hope doesn’t come out of this is people just putting one lady on their board and on their schedule just to avoid being blogged or Tumbl-d about,” she said. But if people felt a little “embarrassed” by it, even, DePillis would consider that a success. And surely it’s embarrassing to have your all male, mostly white, group next to a bunch of other all male, mostly white groups. But how does that sort of public shaming help? “The ideal outcome is that organizations which are completely full of men will think about why that is and think about what they can do,” she added.
“100 Percent Men” is similar to the “Said to Lady Journos” Tumblr, which a West Coast newspaper reporter created earlier this year to highlight sexist comments that female journalists have encountered on the job.
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