Melissa Clouthier recently wrote a post called “Why there are fewer women bloggers” which was written in response to the Technorati State of the Blogosphere report which stated that 67% of bloggers are male.
Women dominate the social web. There are more women online than men in the 24 – 35 age range. Last year BlogHer even found that:
"36.2 million female US Internet users actively participate in blogs every week with 15.1 million publishing at least one post a week and 21.1 reading and commenting at least weekly."
That’s a ton of women. Like, a lot.
If Technorati say that there are less female bloggers than male bloggers, it’s probably because of the sheer amount of male political bloggers. Clouthier points out that : “Proportionally in political blogging and in blogging generally, there just aren’t as many women bloggers.”
I'm guessing it's because of the difference in male and female bloggers in political blogging is where the shift happens.
But is this a bad thing? Does it even matter?
I don’t think so. Where as I 100% think you need more women and female developers and computer engineers working at start-ups and major design companies – do we need more female bloggers?
Um, we have over 15.1 million women publishing at least one post a week in the US. I don’t think the Internet is in danger of turning into a male voice. There are a lot of high profile and successful female bloggers.
As much as I’m an advocate for more women in tech – good lord people, this 62% thing doesn’t bother me.
But what does bother me, is Clouthier’s explanation of why there are less female bloggers.
She says that the blogosphere is still “like the Wild West” and that there are more women on the social web because we have privacy filters and the option to block people –you know, it’s safer and us wee lil women folk have protection from the big bad wolves, er, Trolls.
Clouthier throws in the usual Kathy Sierra example of how women have been targeted, threatend and “sexualized and insulted”.
As is with why there are fewer women in the army and going to battle – female bloggers “feel threatened and they worry about their safety and the safety of their children.”
Women don’t want to “put up” with the “garbage”. Garbage meaning the extreme examples from the extreme cases of harassment online.
Another reason?
“Women often don’t like the intellectual jousting.”
Why? It hurts our docile female brains.
Here’s the thing, I appreciate where Clouthier is going with this. I think it is more difficult to be a woman online. The Internet mirrors the real world, therefore there will be sexism and misogyny and you will have a harder time online being a mouthy opinionated woman just like you would be in real life, in the real world.
The difference with the Internet is that people are faceless and nameless and can mask their IP and harass you from afar without consequence.
I think what Cloutheir forgets, is that the political arena is messy, intense, full of testosterone, and that therefore political blogging will be the same.
If you’re going to say that women aren’t blogging because it’s too hard for them (“The women who blog are not typical women. Over and over, the women who blog are tougher.”) then you might as well say that women in real life don’t speak their mind because they are afraid of having to back up their opinions.
I know a lot of people, both male and female, that don’t like getting into political discussions or debates because of how heated and ridiculous it can be. If you think about how bad a political debate can get IRL, think of how it can get online.
However, what Cloutheir needs to remember is that political blogging is not the only type of blogging out there. Political blogging is an extremely intense are of the Internet, and therefore isn’t necessarily indicative of the entire blogosphere as a whole.
Her post would have been less inflammatory if the title of her post said “political blogging” not just “blogging”.
There are a lot of women who don’t want to deal with some asshole with opposite political views than them harassing them online. Maybe this puts them off political blogging, but is it going to stop them for blogging full stop? I highly doubt it.
Political blogging and mommy blogging or food blogging or sex blogging are all different things. There will be similarities between them. (I hear that you can get into heated debates about mothering.) But there are also differences. People need to start realizing that not all kinds of blogging are the same, and that “blogging” is as general of a word as “writing” or “reading”.
Maybe there are less female political bloggers because there are simply less women in politics. Why are there less women in politics? I don’t know. Are they afraid? Weak? Unable to do the job? Are they just fundamentally and scientifically different than men?
Any of this sounding familiar?
Women in technology, women in politics, women in science, women in mathematics....
Perhaps we need to stop thinking it’s because women are “just different” or that “it’s harder” for us, and start delving a little deeper into our society, our culture, and the way we are bringing up our young women, whether it be parenting or education.
It’s not a simple answer, and it never will be.
But I can tell you this much... it’s not because women are afraid and need protecting.
That's just ridiculous.