So I want to be really clear that our gender content will exist throughout every section of the paper and be produced in every medium. Which actually makes my job relatively daunting, because it means I’m sort of like a roving editor working across all sections and departments. (And let me tell you, this place is huge.)

But I also think that approach is crucial. Because we are trying to organically expand and improve the coverage of these issues in every section, almost so that you don’t notice — because gender shouldn’t have to exist in its own section.

I keep saying: I will know I’m successful in this role when my job no longer has to exist — at which point, fingers crossed, The New York Times will find something else for me to do.

_____

Do you see a tension between journalistic neutrality in news reporting and your stated goal of raising gender awareness?

— Doug Painter, in Los Angeles

Jodi Kantor, the investigative reporter who broke the Harvey Weinstein story with our colleague Megan Twohey, was recently on the “Longform” podcast talking about what she initially hoped to accomplish when she began reporting on sexual harassment.

She said something I thought was so smart, which was essentially that when it comes to women’s and gender issues, everyone has an opinion, everyone has a “take” — but there is often a lack of old-fashioned shoe leather reporting to go along with it. She felt that what she could contribute, as an investigative reporter, was that reporting — and I think we’re basically living in a #MeToo moment that was in part the product of that reporting.

My feeling is it’s absolutely possible to maintain neutrality in reporting on gender issues, as well as to have a point of view without being perceived as partisan.