NEW YORK, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Zeba Khan, an OpEd Project alum, is one of two finalists from a pool of 4,800 entries to win a 13-week column in the Washington Post. Today is the last and final round of the contest, which is reader determined. Voting ends at 8 pm EST today, Monday, November 23.

Ms. Khan is a social media expert from Toledo, Ohio, who had never written an op-ed prior to coming through The OpEd Project.

According to The OpEd Project's byline survey The Post has only featured 12.5% women in their op-ed pages in the 9 weeks ending October 12, 2009.

The OpEd Project is an initiative to expand the range of voices we hear from in the public sphere, with an initial goal of increasing the number of women in thought leadership positions to a tipping point. Since women currently do not submit op-eds with anywhere near the frequency that men do, The Project targets and trains women experts at universities, nonprofits, corporations and community organizations across the nation to contribute to major opinion forums in all media platforms. Participants are connected with a national network of women experts and high-level mentor-editors.

Ms. Khan was matched with OpEd Project mentor-editors Stacy Sullivan (for her first op-ed in the Huffington Post), and Marci Alboher (on her second op-ed, which landed her in The Post contest). Zeba wrote: "I'm still registering in my mind that something I have worked on for so long is finally out there. This has been a life-altering experience."

Another OpEd Project alum, as well as a mentor-editor and advisor, Courtney Martin, made it to the semifinal round narrowed to only three finalists.

"The majority of voices we hear from in this world come from a small fraction of society. That fraction is mostly privileged, mostly white, and overwhelmingly male. Up to 85% of our nation's top opinion sites are penned by men, 84% of pundits on Sunday political shows on TV are male, and 83% of congress is male," said Katie Orenstein, founder and director of The OpEd Project. "We appreciate the men who use their voices to make our world a better place. But what is the cost to all of us, when half of the best minds and best ideas on earth are left out?"

www.theopedproject.org

SOURCE The OpEd Project

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