After Politico noted that only 13.5 percent of talk show guests are women, Jezebel analyzes why so few make the talk-show rounds. The author notes that there are many fewer women in positions of power; with only 17 percent of seats in Congress are occupied by women, there just aren't a lot of them to choose from.
But another reason, Jezebel notes, is that women decline invites. For instance, Nancy Pelosi's staff doesn't want her to be over-exposed, and Senators Claire McCaskill and Olympia Snowe go home for family time on the weekends.
[I]t's not clear whether male elected officials have declined to appear on these shows on a similar basis — or even whether 6am call times have actually led Feinstein and Boxer to turn down invitations to appear on these shows.
I don't know how many men go home and rank their families above their work on Sunday mornings, but I can tell you that probably some of them of them do. This is part of the problem when so few women represent: They are expected to represent all the time. When they don't, and decline to work on Sunday mornings, gender is blamed. When men decline to go on Sunday talk shows for familial reasons, the hosts just find other men. If gender diversity were important for those who produce these talk shows, they could find a way.
-- Monica Potts
