The brilliant Jennifer Fearing and a number of California’s best known political thinkers and operators have been making an undeniable point for quite a while: big public events about California, particularly those around Sacramento, often include few or no women.
This isn’t news, and it isn’t defensible. But it persists. (And women aren’t the only demographic who are hard to find in a California punditocracy that is blindingly white).
Debate rages about the reasons for this. My own explanation is the simple one that the California punditocracy is mostly a boys club, though I’ve sometimes wondered if another reason for this state of affairs is that most women are too sensible to waste their time discussing something as Quixotic as improving the governance of a place as ungovernable as California. (That thought occurred to me when I was sitting on an all-male panel on reforming the initiative process in San Diego County that was organized by, of all organizations, the League of Women Voters).
But let’s put aside that aside and ask: how to solve this problem? Certainly, the public criticism hasn’t produced many results, if the make-up of panels at a recent IGS event are any indication. A better solution is to follow the old adage: if you want something done right, do it yourself.
The women movers and shakers need to create compelling events at which all the speakers are women. A Lilith Fair, if you will, for women pundits.
An all-women speakers’ event would be healthy for a number of reasons. First, it would put the lie to the explanation that it’s too hard to find women to speak or to get them to come to events. Second, the discipline of putting together such an event (or events) would bring forward some smart voices from whom we don’t often hear – and create a roster of sorts for all kinds of events to draw from. And third, the novelty of such an event should guarantee a big audience.
Such an event shouldn’t be about women – this can’t be seen as narrow or just a women’s thing. It should be a broad, bold look at California and its future. It should have a diverse audience that includes lots of men.
I’m happy to volunteer to help out any woman or women who will take this on. I will even bake cookies and make coffee.