Katie Couric, Feminist Blogger: America Should Be More Like Rwanda

It's nice to see Drudge picking up on Katie Couric's blog at CBSNews.com. Her commentaries are worth watching. In this case, Katie complained on behalf of the "feminist movement" that while she was thrilled to attend a recent briefing at the White House with other top network anchors, she wanted more females at the table. Once again, America is so far behind nations like Rwanda and Sweden. (Yes, that's in there.) The weirdest sentence: "Everyone was gracious, though the jocular atmosphere was palpable." What is it about jocularity that makes it disturbingly masculine?

This from Couric, whose on-air tone is defined by breezy informality? Whose commentaries and on-air asides are salted with "gosh" and whose interviews are jarringly affected with light-hearted quotes from her daughters? You can't help but wonder if Katie's already looking forward to the whole White House being Hillaryland, when "great leaps for womankind" will be Job One, and male "jocularity" will be frowned upon, and perhaps the networks will be lectured about the need to send female anchors to the White House table:

And even though I’ve been in this business for more years than I’d like to admit, and interviewed countless Presidents and world leaders, it’s still thrilling—and even a little awe-inspiring—to get “briefed” at the White House, no matter who is sitting in the Oval Office.

And yet, the meeting was a little disconcerting as well. As I was looking at my colleagues around the room—Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos, Brian Williams, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer, Wolf Blitzer, and Brit Hume—I couldn’t help but notice, despite how far we’ve come, that I was still the only woman there. Well, there was some female support staff near the door. But of the people at the table, the “principals” in the meeting, I was the only one wearing a skirt. Everyone was gracious, though the jocular atmosphere was palpable.

The feminist movement that began in the 1970’s helped women make tremendous strides—but there still haven’t been enough great leaps for womankind. Fifty-one percent of America is female, but women make up only about sixteen percent of Congress—which, as the Washington Monthly recently pointed out, is better than it’s ever been...but still not as good as parliaments in Rwanda (forty-nine percent women) or Sweden (forty-seven percent women). Only nine Fortune 500 companies have women as CEO’s.

That meeting was a reality check for me—and not just about Iraq. It was a reminder that all of us still have an obligation to ask: Don’t more women deserve a place at the table too?