03.08.18

Why ‘The Post’ created an edition dedicated to women

Elizabeth Backo / Editor-in-Chief

With Women’s History Month in full swing and International Women’s Day being celebrated this Thursday, Post staff members decided now would be a great time dedicate an entire edition to women in Athens.

Matt Starkey | FILE

All year long, Post staffers have been following different storylines related to women. Staff members reported on the Women’s History Month keynote speaker Sara Safari, The Vagina Monologues, international women’s fashion, the Time’s Up movement, natural health practices women are using, and the pay gap between men and women at Ohio University.

When Matt Lauer, a widely known OU alumnus who worked for NBC’s Today, was fired after an allegation of sexual misconduct, The Post’s executive staff wrote an editorial about the importance of continuing the conversation about the mistreatment of women.

For more than a century, The Post has been writing about the lives of women. In 1941, The Post had its first female editor-in-chief, Mary Elizabeth Lasher Barnette. After graduating in 1942, Lasher became the first female reporter at Editor & Publisher and the first woman to be part of the retail advertising division at the American Newspaper Publishers Association.

With this issue, we wanted to give all different types of women the chance to tell their stories. That includes female entrepreneurs, women in administration, international women and women in sports. Our opinion section is also women-centric with a column about pornography on Tumblr and another about a rising female musician. The pages containing news briefs, blotter and classifieds have been moved to the back of the print edition next to Weekender because those two spreads are not specifically about women.

This year, The Post is led by an executive staff of all women, and we want to make sure the conversation about women continues to be heard. We have conversations frequently in the newsroom about what it means to be a woman in the workforce and how we can all strive to be progressive. Similar conversations are taking place outside of our newsroom as well. A few weeks ago, Backdrop produced a women’s issue, too. It is a great time to be having this conversation.

Elizabeth Backo is a senior studying journalism and the editor-in-chief of The Post. What do you think of The Post’s women’s issue? Tell her at eb823313@ohio.edu or send her a tweet at @liz_backo.

Development by: Taylor Johnston / Digital Production Editor