A Chat w/ Kate O’Beirne

John Hawkins spends some times with one of my favorites – a smart lady with substantive things to say:

John Hawkins: Do you think we need women’s studies departments at colleges? After all, we don’t have men’s studies departments.

Kate O’Beirne: (laughs) Women�s studies departments prepare their graduates for one job, it seems to me, and that�s to be a professional aggrieved feminist. Not that that�s not a promising occupation, because there�s a lot of money in being an aggrieved professional feminist. One thing I point out in this book is the typical counsel — follow the money.

The women I talk about who argue — against all of the evidence — that women in America still face widespread discrimination receive under various federal programs tens of millions of dollars in education funds, in criminal justice funds, under the Violence Against Women Act. There are a lot of federal tax dollars funding this agenda and I guess the graduates of the women�s studies departments that are so ubiquitous on our campus will now be qualified to move into the grievance feminist business and be on the public payroll to advance this destructive agenda.

John Hawkins: A while back, Susan Estrich and Michael Kinsley got into a brouhaha over the number of women posting on the LA Times editorial page. It’s hard not to notice that percentage wise, women are very under represented not just on editorial pages, but in the upper echelons of the blogosphere. You�re a successful columnist. Why do you think that is the case?

Kate O’Beirne: Well, very often the complaint is lodged, as it was in the case of Susan Estrich, as a matter of group identity. This is the case very often when feminists argue for more women in some given occupation. There ought to be more women in Congress, there ought to be more women on the editorial pages, there ought to be more women in the upper echelons of the media. They typically mean only a certain kind of women. I don�t believe Susan Estrich would have celebrated had myself, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, or Ann Coulter been given important real estate on the LA Times� editorial pages.

Heh. Indeed. You’ll want to read the whole thing, and then check out her book at The Anchoress Bookshelf.

Also check out here pithy pooh-poohing of the whiners at NRO.