WWMD?

I heard this guy Clay Shirsky on NPR's On the Media this morning while I was making breakfast for my children as my husband slept in. Clay, an NYU professor, was being interviewed because an NPR ombudsman (who is female, yet referred to as an ombudsman) had discovered that there aren't enough female sources and commentators on NPR. He had written a rant for his blog inspired by the realization that his male students were getting jobs more readily than his female students, regardless of their level of talent. His rant states that "not enough women have what it takes to behave like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks." And "whatever you can say about these behaviors, you can't say they are underrepresented among people who have changed the world." The rant has attracted 511 comments as of this moment. On NPR, the interviewer pointed out that woman who behave confidently often get punished for it, and are called shrill, strident bitches. He agreed.

This reminds me of some advice a successful journalist friend once offered when I was having a hard time at a job. "I always think of what a man would do, and then I do that," she told me. I was never able to think that way. But she does have a better career than I do.