News

5 Dream Female Power Duos We'd Like to See

by Ariana Tobin

Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff have been named co-anchors and managing editors of the PBS NewsHour, becoming the first ever all-woman team of co-hosts.

This is big. Journalism has — to use the terma woman problem. This Ifill + Woodruff announcement is the most positive press the Newshour has gotten in quite some time, and media-watchers are eager to see how and if they'll shake things up.

Which got us thinking: This "put two women and charge and watch what happens" experiment? It could work for lots of sectors.

Here are some more pairings we'd like to see:

Big Payoff: Sheryl Sandberg and Joan Entmacher

Women struggle to compete in the American labor market, whether it's for a seat in the high halls of Silicon Valley — or just a chair when they're pregnant at a low-wage job.

Larry Busacca/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Sheryl Sandberg started a conversation about pushing ahead in the corporate world with her trademark "lean in" campaign. How could we start a conversation about gender in the workplace that also remembers women on the other end of the socio-economic spectrum? Let's add the voice of Joan Entmacher, Vice President for Family Economic Security at the National Women's Law Center, who pushes policies designed to support the economic security of low-income women and their families.

(Image: Fox Business News)

Co-chairmanship of something, stat!

The Best Defense: Judy Clarke + Diann Rust-Tierney

Defense attorney Judy Clarke has a history of getting her most prosecuted clients — think Gabby Gifford's shooter in Tucson, the Unabomber, the man who attacked the Atlanta Olympics, and now Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — off death row. She has told the media: "I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us. I don't think it's a secret that I oppose the death penalty."

(Image: Clarke & Rice)

So, what if the woman who has been called "the most low-profile high-profile lawyer of all time" teamed up with the Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's Diann Rust-Tierney? One works case-by-case; one works from the top down.

(Image: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty)

Hilary Clinton, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Ruth Bader-Ginsburg

OK, so this one's more of a triumvirate than a duo, and it's not exactly likely that Ruth Bader-Ginsburg will ever ascend to Chief Justice. But: If two women can take over NewsHour, why can't three women head the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches of government?

Time for some balance of power.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Pool/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Fair Trade in Vogue: Anna Wintour + Inês Sousa

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

What if the woman with the last word in the fashion industry decided to team up with Fair Trade clothing advocate Inês Sousa, thus making decent wages, transparent sourcing, (and oh, genuine human decency) fashionable? We think Sousa, a long-time sustainability practices expert who now works for the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, could be her partner in style.

(Image: Sustainable Apparel Coalition)

In Good Faith: Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman and Sister Pat Farrell

(Image: Yeshivat Maharat)

What if top-nun Sister Pat Farell at the Order of Women Religious compared notes with one of maharats ("female leader of Jewish law, spirituality, and Torah") newly ordained in their common Holy Land?

Let's get the Jewish almost-rabbis to team up with the Catholic almost-priests to at least put everyone on the same spiritual page here.