Slate has a new blog called the XX Factor where "Slate women blog about politics, etc..." The XX Factor does not say anything about being a feminist blog; it's just female. Presumably it's in response to the fact that very few top political bloggers and opinion writers are women. A valiant feminist effort by Slate? Let's keep thinking about this.

Slate does not have any regular feminist features. (Contrast to Salon's feminist blog Broadsheet, which I think is the smartest part of their site.) The Slate blog which does tackle gender issues is Human Nature. It sports provocative headlines about social issues such as "Are blacks inferior?" Its nominally pro-choice author William Saletan has argued that abortion is "bad because the fetus is of us and is becoming us."

Slate has roughly 402 regular features/bloggish things about politics. They are bylined by people named: Mickey, Chadwick, Bruce, Jacob, E.J., Timothy, John, Mark, Charles, Christopher, Melinda. Melinda's recurring feature is about "explaining political marriages." Checking out the authors of the past fifteen "business and tech" stories, one is a woman. She wrote a "history lesson." Sports: all male except a piece on air pollution.

Maybe I shouldn't blame Slate. What if women don't want to write about these subjects, or they aren't good at it--how would I know? Well, at least as far as politics go, I could check out... the XX Factor! There on display is an eclectic group of women writing interesting things about politics even on top of their normal Slate duties. It's also a place where, inevitably, the writers get more recognition for being female than for being good pundits.

Good job, Slate. Not only have you ghettoized women, but you've proved to the world that you engage in discriminatory hiring practices.