Dowd sums it all up

In her column, "Dish it out, ladies," Maureen Dowd succinctly explains why it is difficult for a woman to write an op-ed column:

While a man writing a column taking on the powerful may be seen as authoratative, a woman doing the same thing may be seen as castrating. If a man writes a scathing piece about men in power, it's seen as his job; a woman can be cast as an emasculating man-hater. I'm often asked how I can be so "mean"--a question that Tom Friedman, who writes plenty of tough columns, doesn't get.

Dowd also gives us a sickening reminder of the time Chris Matthews remarked--after Dowd had written a critical piece on Bill Clinton--that Clinton must have felt as though he had "another wife hectoring him."

In the column, Dowd also shames the major newspapers for having almost no female columnists, and she acknowledges that women are less apt than men to eagerly express their opinions.

Though some women may be unaware of this type of blatant discrimination against women, I think most women know all too well about it, but have decided to just live with it. I talk to a lot of women from all different levels of society and of all political persuasions, and they are generally quite cognizant of the misogyny all around them, but they have a sense of resignation about it.