Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

As a new blogger I look to other blogs for inspiration and info. I realized I quickly started getting a list of women bloggers because I do not hear a lot of women's voices in the online tech world. As I checked my bloglines list each morning, my first stop was the "Cool Women" folder (inspired by Meg on Kinja).

Do we need more women blogging? More diverse voices? Do we need to point to these voices to get them heard? If I had a daughter (I don't - I have two sons) what would I tell them about personal publishing on the web (besides those motherly cautions!)?

Thanks for thinking on it, David. As I said, you are among the best of the fair and ultimately multi-interest bloggers out there. That's why it struck me. I generally don't read blogs looking for either men or women references, just for good writing and interesting bits. But coupled with my recent disappointment in what I called the homogeny of voices -- this noise of sameness wrapped together out here in a dull 4/4 cadence -- it struck me that even the bloggers I count on to versatile (including MYSELF) seem to have been swept into a lamestream tornado.

I was thinking last night that at least in the current U.S. arena, men make war, war makes news, men make news.

and I don't consider myself a feminist nor do I throw the "men" moniker around lightly. just so you know.

hugs, David.

-me

me

I always feel a bit strange commenting on these sorts of posts, partly because it feels like I'm saying 'Ooh, read me! I'm female!'. I don't really believe that gender has much to do with why someone reads one blog and not another - it's far more to do with content and common ground. If someone is saying something that interests me, I read them, no matter what their gender is - that probably holds true for most people.

The question as to why so few women are bloggers is, though, another matter. I've been to a few bloggers' meet-ups over the last few months, and if I haven't been the only woman in the room, then I've certainly been in a very small minority. However, I am not an expert on why women aren't being attracted to the tech/science/bloggish arena, and I'd feel like a fraud commenting on it.

But, seeings as you were also involved in the Free Culture Audiobook, you might well be interested in my essay, Something for Nothing: The Free Culture AudioBook Project.

Oh damn, see what's happened? Now I've done exactly what I promised myself I wouldn't do...

I have been blogging (however lightly) for over a year and voraciously consuming the content of other blogs. It never occurred to me that there was a gender imbalance - it just isn't reflected in the number of blogs I read. Good gawd, have you taken a look at all the knitting blogs? They are predominently women, but it's not an exclusive club by any means. And they aren't at all what you might expect. They aren't narrowly focused and some are extremely talented writers. I really thought that blogs would provide us all with a level playing field with regard to participation in the discussion. I am not convinced that they won't.

I don't think I have ever commented on your blog, David, but I do so enjoy reading it and exploring all your links. I am sure there are many other women that read your blog regularly. Perhaps we just need to be more assertive about commenting. It seems a cultural thing for many females in the U.S. to hang back and let others do the talking. At least until somebody pisses us off. I'll try to be more vocal.

David, did you read the Matt Yglesias posts? Here http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/week_2004_05_23.html#003444 and http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/week_2004_05_30.html#003471 ?

This is supposedly a hot young liberal successful weblogger, writing about how it's a proven fact that women just aren't interested in politics. You know, it's right up there with our lack of inteest in sports.

How can we feel welcome, when we're faced with this? Someone wrote over at Feministe that the conservatives are more respectful of female contributions than liberals--and she's right. Look at the top women webloggers? They're primarily either warbloggers, or sex bloggers. Or both.

We women have double the battle of the men--haivng to write lucid material, or back our beliefs; and having to tolerate the condescension or just plain being ignored by those supposedly on 'our side'.

And dammit, I am a feminist. And I'm not going to be ashamed of saying this, either.

you go, shelley.

The only thing that matters is whether the content is worthwhile -- not who wrote it!

I'm sure that if there was ever anybody keeping track they'd the find the number of people blogging divided fairly equally between women and men.

Feminists tend to convince themselves they're being treated badly if they're not front and center all the time; well, that's just too bad.

Things go around in cycles.

Sometimes there are female writers with the most interesting stuff, sometimes it's the men. I don't see men complaining to female bloggers they're being overlooked. It's something that comes with maturity, I guess, to recognize you don't need to be the star of the show 100% of the time.

Trudy, I respectfully disagree.

First, I think it's fair to ask why female bloggers have been under-represented in my blog recently. That's not the same as immaturely demanding to be the star all the time.

Second, I don't think blogs are just about content. Often they are about voice, which means they're about the people speaking. Much of the value of blogs is, for me, getting to know the bloggers through their words. And one's sex is a big part of who one is, IMO.

I find myself truly at sea about this whole issue. I just went through my blogs (May 1 to the present) more carefully to see what I could see. I've blogged the results, but, frankly I'm still confused.

Trudy makes the point that women bloggers and feminist bloggers aren't identical groups, and that's a true fact and an important observation. She's right that feminists complain when they aren't the center of attention all the time - that's their principle complaint, in fact. Feminists, for example, are insistent that violence against women be a key public policy issue, when most violent crimes are actually committed against men. So shouldn't violence against anybody be the issue?

David says: "...I think it's fair to ask why female bloggers have been under-represented in my blog recently." To which we have to ask: what's your assumption about fair representation? Your blog deals primarily with a set of issues on which the most compelling voices are men. How many important technology writers are female? Is there such a thing as a "female perspective on Internet policy?"

I don't think there is, and by responding to this kind of cheap criticism you're falling into a quota trap. If you're not citing women as often as the feminists would like, David, perhaps that's because women aren't writing the kind of material you care to cite, regardless of the identity of the writers.

Women are taken seriously when they say serious things, and not by birthright. That's life.

Women think, speak/listen, have ideas/opinions, and write about many things -- including technology, Mr Bennett.

Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but how much time does a woman have to blog when she may be the:
- CEO of a household
- principal caregiver of child(ren)
- full-time "career woman" (hate that term)
- loving wife and/or single mother...?

-- which is not to say that men don't participate or have similar time-constraints; however, I do feel blogging requires a considerable time commitment (especially w/all that spam, David).
a dedicated JOHO reader,
w

Women think, speak/listen, have ideas/opinions, and write about many things -- including technology, Mr Bennett.

Most of the women I know don't write about technology, w. I think you mean to say *some women* write about technology, and the issue here is that the subset encompassed by *some* isn't very large or very interesting.

Feminism wants to lump all women together under these individuality-destroying labels, which does women a great disservice.

Richard, you're arguing against a strawperson.

David, I'll take my experience with the goals of feminist advocacy in the legislative arena over your wishful thinking any day.

Richard: Do a quick look at the 'blog rolls of any tech or politics 'blog -- particularly those run by men -- and you'd be hard-pressed to find more than one link to a woman's 'blog.

Yet, as the Misbehaving.net 'blog roll suggests, there are plenty of women (myself included) 'blogging about tech. Why the disconnect?

Is it that fewer women 'blog about tech or politics? Or is it that (women and) men (subconciously?) pay less attention to what women say because it came from a woman?

It's a valid question. I've had enough experience to wonder whether this is simply a case of women "not being interested."

Before you try and satisfy your quota goals, Tiffany, look at the pool of viable candidates. How many women engineers are there, to begin with? Women are 55% of college graduates, but in the disciplines of engineering and computer science, their numbers are paltry. I attend standards committee meetings related to computer networks, where women are a token presence at best, and have worked in engineering organizations for twenty-five years in which women are as scarce as hen's teeth (and mostly Asian, fwiw.)

So yes, while there are *some* women writing about technology, there aren't many, and among those who are, there aren't that many who're generally interesting. You'll notice that many of the female engineers are so obsessed with the novelty of their gender that they insist on writing about, and practicing engineering with a gender spin - so it's got to be "technology for women" and "women and technology."

Show me one reason I should be interested in such a navel-gazing enterprise as that - I'm all ears. But all the evidence tells me that women aren't as interested in technology as men.

If disagree, true to be empirical about it and maybe you'll convince somebody who hasn't drunk the Kool-Aid.

That last line should have been: "If you disagree, try to be empirical..."

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