Maria Shriver Says Jill Abramson Will Be Fine, Focus Should Be On Lower-Income Women

It's been exactly one week since The New York Times removed Jill Abramson's name from its masthead.

Following the news that the paper's first female executive editor was fired, reports immediately emerged claiming sexism.

While speculation continues (despite publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s best attempts to put those rumors to rest), Maria Shriver penned an op-ed in Time Magazine with a somewhat different opinion on the matter.

Shriver wrote that the reasons behind the termination don't really matter so much; Abramson is going to be just fine.

Instead, Shriver insists, we should use this public event to push off a new campaign targeted at ending the gender wage gap for those who need it most: low income women.

According to Shriver, it's these females we need to be concerned about and direct our attention towards, not Abramson's recent ouster.

So while the opinion-sphere heats up with back-and-forth about Jill Abramson and The New York Times, tens of millions of hard-working women struggle to keep their families off the brink, struggle to care for kids and parents, and struggle to choose between missing a day of work and missing grandma’s doctor appointment. The truth is, we are already A Woman’s Nation, and real change will come only when women’s work — paid and unpaid — gets as much attention as does the newsroom of The New York Times.

Shriver makes a fair point. We often get so concerned with one high-profile case of a woman being fired from her high-paying position that we forget about the countless others who are mistreated in their roles, underpaid in their positions and viewed as totally dispensable by their employers.

via Time, Photo Credit: WENN