STILL MISSING THE WOMEN WONKS.

• Date: 01 November 2019
• Author: Kim, Anne

In August 2018, Mexico's Ministry of Health convened a high-profile conference on the benefits of breastfeeding. It was part of a long-standing effort to boost the nation's breastfeeding rate, among the lowest in Latin America. But what drew the most attention was a photo of the keynote panel: six dour men--presumably incapable of lactating themselves--arrayed under a banner reading "Uniendo esfuerzos por la Lactancia Maternal," Spanish for "Joining Forces for Breastfeeding." The photo sparked viral outrage on social media and instantly established the event as a prime example of all-male panels--also known as "manels," "colloqui-hims," or "him-posiums."

I first wrote about the preponderance of testosterone at think tank panels and policy events--particularly in Washington--in a 2012 Washington Monthly article titled "Where Are the Women Wonks?" The imbalance is about more than appearances. "Without greater representation from women, maybe it's not such a surprise that so many of the policy debates in Washington seem to be missing half the picture," I wrote at the time.

When the piece came out, I was thrilled to hear it was generating greater than average buzz for a Washington Monthly article. But, as it turned out, it wasn't my sparkling prose drawing eyeballs. The Monthly, whose staff I had yet to join, had chosen to illustrate the piece with a stock photo of a lush, bespectacled beauty with bedroom hair, the word "THINK" tattooed on a skimpy white tank top straining to contain her breasts. (It's a "think" tank, get it?) She's the embodiment of the...