We Don’t Need Affirmative Action in Blogging
Cordiva at SheGeeks has an interesting post called This Isn’t Feminism, It’s Technology in which she discusses the reaction of some women bloggers to Louis Gray’s list of elite bloggers joining FriendFeed — a list that is a bit thin on women.
When anyone makes a list that proposes to be the “elite” in a category, there’s bound to be controversy and complaining. But the point of Gray’s post is the early adoption of FriendFeed by well-known bloggers. And he simply didn’t find a lot of women in his initial research. Nobody’s dissing women, it’s just a fact that there are more influential male bloggers in tech than women. This isn’t about equality, it’s about numbers, and I don’t see why anyone should complain that there aren’t enough women on the list. We don’t need affirmative action in blogging.
This got me thinking though. Is it harder for a women to make a career in tech blogging? Is there less acceptance? More barriers to entry? More risk to her and her family? Is it even riskier to be a woman entrepreneur in tech than an entrepreneur in general?
Cordiva wrote: “Women are no longer as excluded as they used to be. I can’t speak for the last few years, but I’ve neither felt nor heard about such exclusions in Tech towards women in the previous year or so.”
Hmm. Exclusion is a strong word. But how about this brave post from Steph detailing the harassment and inappropriate behavior that led her to leave her marketing career in tech? Or this post in which Tara Hunt asks (and answers!), “Where are the women in technology?”
Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. The disparity will always exist but, all other things being equal, it should not affect any person’s chance to succeed. Nor should it give anyone a free ride.
As a woman breaking into tech blogging, I wonder what the future holds for me. I wouldn’t want a place on any list unless my skills earned me that spot. At the same time, I truly hope I am given a fair chance to earn it.
PHAT = Parenting, Homeschooling And Thriving. I'm a homeschooling mom, web designer, and lover of all things internet. 
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3.17.08 at 1:03 pm
Mrs. Flinger comments:
Just another reason I am IN LOVE WITH YOU. My dissertation propsal was about women in computer science and the EXTREME chasm between the numbers of men vs women. As a woman in computer science, holding a graduate degree, I’ve been told I’m unable to do various programming tasks because of my boobs. It’s sad that in this day and age there still is such 1950’s thinking.
Mrs. Flinger’s last blog post..Mrs. Flinger: Raw
3.18.08 at 2:03 pm
Barbara Ling (aka Owlbert) comments:
To hell with what convention says. Sure, there are more influential male bloggers on the Internet, so what? Influence is in the eyes of the audience….you have to sing your own song and stand out by your own merits. The rest will come.
If I’m excluded by a crowd, I’ll redefine the crowd as “a crowd of one” - me. It’s been my experience that people see the self-confidence and gyrate towards it.
Data points,
Barbara
Barbara Ling (aka Owlbert)’s last blog post..Easy way to let people Twitter your blog posts - TinyURL plugin usable for tweets!
3.25.08 at 1:07 pm
Megan comments:
Thanks for the thought provoking post. I think it would be interesting to see if a woman writing a tech blog under a male pseudonym might find success in the web tech circles more quickly.
I’m not saying she would, I’m just saying I think it would be a fascinating experiment.
Megan
http://www.megansminute.com
http://www.blogher.com
4.3.08 at 5:19 pm
NJDrummer comments:
I’ve been involved in technology at a high level for many years. I’ve worked on both the vendor and customer sides of the business. Not to say there is no “discrimination” out there, but my personal experience has been if the person you’re sitting across from is knowledgeable about the particular aspect of technology being discussed, their gender really doesn’t matter. My experience also has been that people serious about their technology want the best minds on their projects…if that mind happens to come with boobs…well, perhaps that’s a bonus! Either way, shouldn’t matter.