A video interview with Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex capped off five days of conversation led by The 19th*, a newly-launched nonprofit news organization co-founded by Emily Ramshaw and Amanda Zamora aimed at balancing the underrepresentation of women in politics and policy journalism. The name derives from the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in 1919, but the asterisk in their logo represents how the law primarily aided white women, and how there were (and still are) barriers of voter suppression for minorities.
“Oh! That’s what that’s for!” Meghan said with delight during her conversation with Ramshaw at the end of the week-long The 19th Represents Summit. Though Meghan, for a change of pace, was supposed to be the one asking the questions, by the end it became more of an encouraging two-way chat. This moment of clarity was one of many points in which these two women seemed at-ease with one another, engaged in the work of elevating women’s voices, particularly during this very stressful time of a pandemic, heightened racial awareness, and a presidential campaign.
“People are craving a change,” Meghan said, regarding the current onslaught of hyperbolic news. “People are questioning the systems we’ve always believed in.” She hoped that The 19th, a newsroom staffed by 91% women and whose reporting is free to readers and syndicated through USA Today to over 260 regional publications, and is also published in Spanish via Univision, will “be the catalyst for reset.”
When discussing how a default patriarchal lens in media can have lasting effects, Meghan reflected on reading an article about how one British journalist in 1906 coined the phrase “suffragette” as something of a put-down, with the “-ette” as a feminizing suffix. The term, still used today, shows how influential one viewpoint can be. “The headline alone, the clickbait alone, makes an imprint,” she said, clearly reflecting on travails in her own life.
She added that she and her husband, Prince Harry, have discussed how much toxicity is out there in “the economy of attention.”
Good, honest reporting from new perspectives seems to be what The 19th* is all about, and Ramshaw boasted that it was one of the new organization’s reporters, Errin Haines, whose foundational work concerning Breonna Taylor that elevated that tragedy into a national story.
Elsewhere during the chat, which lasted about 25 minutes, Meghan talked about the importance of voting, and how many people have fought for that right. (She added that her husband has never been able to vote.)
Other moments of note included asides like “I was talking the other day with Gloria Steinem” and how she chuckled when Ramshaw described herself as a new mother “covered in spit-up.” She also appeared extra jazzed to be speaking to Ramshaw, as they are both Northwestern University alum.
She added that living in the United States for the first time in 10 years and seeing “the current state of affairs” was “devastating,” but added that the silver lining was seeing peaceful protests after George Floyd’s death, and seeing people recognize their role in perpetuating bias. “It shifted from sadness to a feeling of absolute inspiration, because I can see that the tide is turning,” she said, before adding “it’s good to be home.”
Other speakers during the summit have included Senator Kamala Harris, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Melinda Gates, Stacey Abrams, and Meryl Streep. Videos are being teased out on The 19th*’s YouTube page.
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