Earlier today Poynter—-a journalism site about journalism—-hosted a chat with the Post’s Melinda Henneberger and Reuters’ Jack Shafer about the new Post ladyblog, She The People.

Shafer, a former City Paper editor, contends (sort of like we did—-though more optimistically) that creating a ghetto of Content For Women holds back writers and hurts readership. But Henneberger, who serves as the site’s main blogger and “anchor,” insists that she’s never felt so free: “I write about everything, and so do the other ‘She the People’ writers. I’m writing about the campaign same as I ever would have.”

She also defends the subsite against critics who wonder why the Post can’t just integrate She The People content into the main site and paper:

In answer to the question, “Why not cover more women’s political news on main news sites?” my answer is: That’s exactly what we are doing. All of our content runs on the politics page online, and some of it also runs in the newspaper, so I’m not sure how this makes us separate.

That point, at least, is fair enough, since some writing from STP does make it onto the Post‘s home page and into the paper.

While it’s still early on in the site’s existence, and it’s really hard to assess its success, we’re still not sure why there’s even a need for the new label. Unfortunately, Shafer and Henneberger spent most of the chat staking out their positions and refusing to budge, so it was less a discussion about the place of women’s blogs than it was a series of defensive stances.