Huffington Magazine Issue 90 | Page 29

DAN STEINBERG/INVISION/AP Voices pick a fight with every journalist. I think anyone who has ever heard me speak knows how I’d rather spend my leisure time. I’m speaking up with the awareness that some will roll their eyes or dismiss my point. Yet it would be a disservice to all of the hard working women in entertainment, including Joan Rivers, who was the first woman to have her own late-night show. Not to mention how this minimizes the efforts of the 100+ staff members who work hard on my show every day. And just as I don’t want to be inconsequential in any late-night discourse, I also don’t want to be singled-out and lauded merely because I am successful “for a woman.” I only want to be acknowledged for having worked hard to build an equally significant audience and fan base to those of my peers. I believe the success of any woman should never be qualified by her gender. This isn’t about Bill Carter. This is about being noted as a parenthetical, reaffirming what I feel has been an underlying, yet consistent in