Post-Feminist World

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

Less than three years after she was hired as the New York Times' first ever female executive editor, Jill Abramson has been fired. At the New Yorker, Ken Auletta shares what he uncovered about her termination:

Several weeks ago, I'm told, Abramson discovered that her pay and her pension benefits as both executive editor and, before that, as managing editor were considerably less than the pay and pension benefits of Bill Keller, the male editor whom she replaced in both jobs. "She confronted the top brass," one close associate said, and this may have fed into the management's narrative that she was "pushy," a characterization that, for many, has an inescapably gendered aspect.

"Pushy." So she was fired for being an uppity bitch, basically.

Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, said that Jill Abramson's total compensation as executive editor "was directly comparable to Bill Keller's"—though it was not actually the same. I was also told by another friend of Abramson's that the pay gap with Keller was only closed after she complained. But, to women at an institution that was once sued by its female employees for discriminatory practices, the question brings up ugly memories. Whether Abramson was right or wrong, both sides were left unhappy. A third associate told me, "She found out that a former deputy managing editor"—a man—"made more money than she did" while she was managing editor. "She had a lawyer make polite inquiries about the pay and pension disparities, which set them off."

...The reason Sulzberger originally hesitated to appoint Abramson as executive editor was a worry about her sometimes brusque manner. As I wrote in my Profile of Abramson, others in the newsroom, including some women, had the same concern.

...Even though she thought she was politely asking about the pay discrepancy and about the role of the business side, and that she had a green light from management to hire a deputy to Baquet, the decision to terminate her was made.

She thought she was being polite, but she was brusque. EVEN WOMEN THOUGHT SO! Good riddance to bitchy rubbish!

This is something that is happening at the newspaper of record in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and fucking fourteen.