OF A GOLDEN AGE

Nytpicker pointed out a phenomenon I could never have imagined: Gender disparity in the obituaries published by the New York Times. The nytpicks quote obituaries editor Bill McDonald’s 2006 statement that because of the equality gap of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, the prominent people dying today are mostly white men. So they checked back 20 years to see if the disparity was even greater then:

Of 691 NYT obituaries published in 1990, only 92 of them were of women — almost exactly replicating the 2010 numbers.

So what’s going on? Are the world’s prominent women — the ones deserving of NYT obituaries — simply living forever? In the last two decades, has there been zero growth in the number of notable women who’ve died?

I can see both sides of this, but the numbers warrant some examination. Would it be morbid to admit I look forward to a more equal obituaries section in the future?

no responses