Mika Brzezinski, a co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” has branded herself in recent years as a champion of women’s advancement in the workforce, authoring two books on the subject, going on a motivational speaking tour this year and carving out a 30-minute segment on her show just for women.
But veteran Democratic operative Gina Glantz, who was a senior aide in Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, thinks it’s all a ruse.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post published Sunday night, Glanz, now a gender equality advocate, said that Brzezinski’s pro-women theme is “well meaning” but that its principles don’t seem to be shaping “Morning Joe’s” guest lists.
“During five hours (one hour a day) spread out over the week of June 22, 16 percent of the guests or panelists were women,” Glantz observed. “On the best day, there were two women among the eight participants.”
Addressing women-centric initiatives in general, Glantz said that most of them are marketing and branding ploys and not genuine efforts to promote women.
“Let’s face it,” Glantz wrote in the column. “Something tagged exclusively for or about women is all too often a revenue generating strategy alongside a way to deflect criticism about the lack of attention to women and an opportunity for the powers-that-be to say, ‘look what we do for women.’ Unfortunately, often, what they ‘do’ is not much.”
She said that women in power should begin turning away from organizations and publications that seek to highlight them for their achievements, unless they are featured in the same frequency and context that men are.
Presumably, that would include the 30-minute women’s segment on “Morning Joe,” which is moderated by Brzezinski.
A spokeswoman for MSNBC declined to comment for this article.
