Business Week have announced their list of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web. While the list is incredibly interesting to look over, and there are some fantastic people on the list, such as Loic Le Meur, only four of the 25 people on the list were women. Woo! 16%! Ladies, we are on a roll! Look out Internet, we've got the power!
Not even Sarah Lacy, who's a columnist for Business Week and hosts Yahoo!'s Tech Ticker was on the list...
However, when I started to ask myself what women should definitely be on the list, I'm ashamed to admit that I became a little stumped.
While there are magnificent women in tech that I admire whole heartedly, I'm not sure if they are of the same caliber as Steve Jobs, or Joi Ito. And that's really fucking depressing to admit. I can't exactly wave my big, pink Sexism Flag at Business Week when I can't exactly come up with legit list of names of my own.
Should Heather Armstrong be on the list? What about Lux Alptraum? What about Gina Trapini? These women are definitely influential on the web in their own sectors, whether it be sex education or the "mommy blogger" movement. But influential in the web as a whole, from a business perspective?
I am all about women in tech, and it's one of the issues that's dear to my heart, and please forgive me if I'm being naive and silly for not recognizing the obvious list of women who should be on there, if such a list exists. I hope it does. I really fucking hope it does. And if you have the names of women who can play ball with the Kevin Roses and the Evan Williams out there, please, for the love of god, give me their names.
The women who do kick all kinds of influential ass on the web, according to Business Week, are:
The Marshall: Mitchell Baker, Mozilla.org
The Muckraker: Ariana Huffington, The Huffington Post
The Adult: Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook.com
The Crafter: Maria Thomas, Etsy.com
Congratulations, ladies! Let us hope that there are more of us in next year's list. Oy. Vey.
Image via BusinessWeek