Why There Are Fewer Women Bloggers
October 26, 2009 / 10:52 am • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierAt Western CPAC there were a row of blogging men with two notable exceptions: Rachel Alexander of Intellectual Conservative and me. Proportionally in political blogging and in blogging generally, there just aren’t as many women bloggers. David Griner of The Social Path asks why:
If you spend any time looking at social media demographics, there’s one stat you see over and over: women dominate the space. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter — all are more popular with women than men.
So it was a bit jarring this week to see that 67% of bloggers are male, according to the newest installment of the Technorati State of the Blogosphere report.
Admittedly, this isn’t a new stat. In least year’s report, Technorati’s survey put the male blogger ratio at 66%. But compared to the other mainstream social media activities, it seems bizarrely guy-heavy.
In the post, he asks women bloggers he knows for their answers. Here’s my answer:
The Internet still feels like the Wild West. There are some safe homesteads–social media, for example. Consider: On Facebook, a woman can decide who she wants to connect with and who she wants to keep out. On Twitter, a woman who feels wrongly attacked can block the attacker. (Meghan McCain, the mad blocker, comes to mind. She takes even mild criticism as a block-worthy offense.)
When it comes the arena of ideas, the women who blog are not typical women. Over and over, the women who blog are tougher. Like the shotgun wielding Western expansionists of yore, women bloggers take shots and can shoot back.
Women bloggers are often sexualized and insulted. One famous incident with Kathy Sierra involved photoshop and personal information. Kathy quit, something I urged her not to do. She is now, though, on Twitter and I believe she blogs anonymously to spare herself the insulting misery. Michelle Malkin, Amanda Carpenter, and just about every conservative woman blogger, including me, has endured horrible personal, violent and sexual insults–very often from “enlightened” male liberal commenters and bloggers.
Most women simply do not want to put up with this garbage. They feel threatened and they worry about their safety and the safety of their children. Michelle Malkin had to actually move after her personal information was plastered on the web. She is a mother. She has children. There are nutjobs out there and in this business, there is a very real risk to personal safety. It’s something guys just don’t have to deal with as much.
In addition, women often don’t like the intellectual jousting. Part of it is gender wiring. Men see verbal sparring as a testosterone-fueled challenge. Women see degraded communication and hostility. When they put an idea out there, it seems aggressive when someone rips the point of view to shreds. And, it is aggressive.
It might not be politically correct to say so, but women and men have gender generalities that make certain behavior more typical–including online behavior. I’m not sure what will change this. And I don’t know if these gender trends would be good to change. For example, if men become more cooperative and women become more dominant, the playing field may be evened in discourse but some of the particularities inherent in gender would be lost. Is that a good thing? That’s a bigger question and not the one being asked here, but I think it’s a worthwhile one to consider.
The women who do blog tend to stick out. Here’s the thing, when I was at Western CPAC with the guys, I didn’t feel out of place or less worthy. They didn’t treat me disrespectfully or condescend. I was a peer in all respects. The thing is, I like the rough and tumble world of political blogging–even if I do get harassed and abused rhetorically from time to time. Goes with the territory. If you can’t take the heat and all that…. Most women have enough heat in the rest of their lives, they figure they don’t need to invite by putting ideas out there via a blog.
31 Responses to “Why There Are Fewer Women Bloggers”
October 26 2009 / 11:45 am
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Great post!! As a female blogger, I’m very much in agreement with what you’ve said here. In fact, I think I’ll link back as a related article on my post responding to Maureen Dowd’s attack on Catholic nuns. As I noted in my piece, “different” doesn’t mean “unequal”.
I have been blogging as “Mommy”, albeit without hiding my real name. I just switched yesterday to a new blog linked under my real name. I have not experienced any attacks with sexual overtones while at the “Mommy” blog. Maybe it’s because I am a person who has embraced celibacy and sometimes write about that. Maybe it’s because men are averse to making sexual comments about someone who is known as “Mommy”. I’m not sure if those things are reasons why, but I tend to think it is more that I am very left-brained and matter-of-fact. Further, having five older brothers and no sisters means that I am fairly experienced at dealing with males.
We’ll see how things go now that I am just “Lisa Graas” rather than “Mommy”. Perhaps things will change for me.
On a more superficial level, let me just ask, if you traveled back in time and were hosting ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ and you offered men the choice between ‘Door #1′ marked ‘blog’ and ‘Door #2′ marked ‘twitter’, which would they select?
October 26 2009 / 11:48 am
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Come to think of it, I think many of my female compatriots in the blogosphere are left-brained. I tend to think it’s the “Mommy” image that throws them off.
Wow, you’ve really got me thinking now! Thanks!
October 26 2009 / 11:57 am
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Blogging is thankless unpaid labour. Very few bloggers regardless of subject matter receive any money for the work that they do. When we consider the amount of unpaid labour women already perform it is easy to understand why we are not lining up to do more. When exactly are we to find the time after we finish working our second shift. A great part of the reason why women don’t blog is because of the breakdown in labour between men and women.
October 26 2009 / 12:30 pm
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Men see verbal sparring as a testosterone-fueled challenge.
Maybe I’m the exception to the rule, but I disagree with this statement.
Some people* enjoy the use of correct logic and debate.
* Conservatives. Liberals don’t understand logic, if they did, they wouldn’t be liberals.
October 26 2009 / 12:32 pm
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There are “fewer” women bloggers?
News to me. Maybe there are some more men blogging out there, but nobody reads them. And if a blog isn’t read, does it really exist?
As for me, most of the individual blogs I visit are by women and most of the rest are group blogs/websites.
October 26 2009 / 4:41 pm
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Very thought-provoking post, Melissa.
I feel like there are definitely fewer women bloggers – in politics. Overall, looking at blogging in general about any topics, I think there’s less disparity. But the fewer women in political blogging makes some sense, looking at political participation on the whole.
October 26 2009 / 4:51 pm
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Blogging is “thankless unpaid labor” just as going door to door for candidates is “thankless unpaid labor” but I would venture to say that women out number men in that activity.
October 26 2009 / 6:31 pm
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As an avid female blogger for the past year, I feel that I am qualified to comment on this subject.
It had never occurred to me that some of my readers may only read me because they think I am male. Afterall, I do use the name Lynn and that could be either male or female.
I would hate to think that I have people interested in what I have to say simply because of the sex I was born.
I had nothing to do with either that or with being born black…as I’m sure many of them are unaware of as well.
Nice post, Melissa…please do not let it disintegrate into that klown kollege discussion of liberal/cons, Dem/Rep, or any of the other ‘labels’ we self-imposed on ourselves in order to divide ourselves…thereby making conquering us just that much easier for the ruling elite.
October 26 2009 / 8:06 pm
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Oh my, I totally agree! I have been cyber-stalked (to the point of having police involvement) and have hate pages made about me where my bust measurements where speculated on, and my home address was posted with a not-so-veiled suggestion that perhaps someone should pay me a visit to shut me up. Of course there was the obligatory b**ch name-calling and other misogynistic tactics. Recently, I have been called the whore of Babylon and another woman of all people has used my impending divorce against me.
Dee Dee Warren is not my “real name” but a common-law alias, but my male “fans” felt it necessary to expend considerable amounts of energy to find out my real name, where I work, where I live, who I bought my house from, my maiden name, my date of birth, etc.
October 26 2009 / 8:07 pm
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posting this second just because I forgot to check the notify by email box
October 26 2009 / 9:03 pm
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WOW!
How did you ever come through all of that? I would be horrified!
I have had a lot of men come on to me in the past 20 years or so that I have been online, but nothing ever as serious as that!
You’re a strong woman to come through to the other side of garbage like that.
October 26 2009 / 9:12 pm
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Lynne, it was tough. And I only gave you the big outline, it was even worse. There was an invitation for anyone in my area to follow me and get a picture (at the time no pictures of me where online), oh and I was a lesbian too. That was news to me. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder that I only this year have broken free from.
In order to remove their power, I had to just throw everything out there so that the intimidation factor would be gone. I intend upon getting my concealed weapons permit. It has made me a much tougher gal. There still is currently a really nutty page about me at http://www.deedeewarren1.blogspot.com/. That one isn’t scary, it is just certifiably nuts. The weirdo changed the content recently. It used to speculate that I was really a man and had all kinds of screwy numerology puzzles to prove it. For all of my websites, I have to buy every possible extension and close variation of the name because these guys will buy them and make hate sites about me. I have to spend a small fortune each year in domain registrations just for that. They kept dragging my husband through it all too which is partly the reason for the divorce, the marriage couldn’t endure the stress (though obviously there were other major problems, but this exacerbated the problem)
Ladies, always, always buy your own name domain if it is available.
October 26 2009 / 9:15 pm
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What are you talking about? There are no women on the internet.
October 26 2009 / 9:17 pm
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If anyone is interested in what can happen, I actually did a podcast on my experiences. Link here:
http://www.preteristpodcast.com/index.php/2009/01/25/ep-20-what-an-itart/
October 26 2009 / 9:24 pm
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My initial reaction was surprise that there were actually so many women bloggers. I would have expected less because I think men are more “technically inclined” in a ratio higher than 2:1, which is largely dictated by genetics. In fact, an NCWIT source indicates the IT profession is 3:1 male. So I think I would have to say, “way to go women.”
October 26 2009 / 9:34 pm
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You know something…your experiences have already helped because I have my name plastered all over the internet. My blog (not so much but it could be uncovered if someone wanted to dig for it), my website, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook.
I am going to take your advice and get my own name as a domain right now.
Thanks, Dee Dee.
October 26 2009 / 9:37 pm
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You are very welcome. Anything bad that happens to me I always try to use as a vehicle to help other people.
October 26 2009 / 10:20 pm
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In six years, I’ve rarely received the sexualized attacks. It might have something to do with me being retired military. I think that the turds are afraid that I’ll hunt them down or have one of my friends do it.
October 27 2009 / 3:55 am
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Michelle Malkin is as tough as any man. I think most women would have given up the second she felt her kids were in danger, but Malkin is ferocious. Intellectually, the Anchoress can spar and leave a mark as bold as any man, and she can write rings around anyone, but she seems to run in fits and starts. She’ll give someone a beating and then write about religion for a week. Clouthier is a consistently strong blogger who never comes off as too girly. Good stuff
October 27 2009 / 6:26 am
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Why are their so few women bloggers?
Who cares?
What will your next post cover…
1. Why are there no female quarterbacks in the NFL?
2. Why doesn’t Obama invite women to golf outings with him? Oh wait that’s been covered already…
Isn’t there a glass ceiling or a pay-parity issue you can cover? Why do female chiropractors make 10 percent less than their male colleagues? Who cares?
October 27 2009 / 7:43 am
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The internet has done many wonderful things for people’s lives, but I’m amazed at the courage and/or foolhardiness of anyone willing to put their real names out there. I’m a female who blogs about Edgar Allan Poe, for the love of Pete, and I would never use anything but a pseudonym. Poe’s Goth reputation–which really is unmerited–attracts a few Internet types that are…a bit unusual, let’s say? They don’t come off as violent, like the political weirdos, but you wouldn’t exactly want some of them dropping by your doorstep.
Amazing how a computer keyboard seems to bring out the very worst in certain personalities.
October 27 2009 / 7:47 am
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I tried my best to keep my information private. But if you have an obsessed enough “fan” or group of “fans,” they will find it out. Been there, done that. I now don’t even bother because it removes the cyber-stalkers primary weapon: fear and intimidation that they are going to release information you don’t want released. I have decided that if anyone is going to be the first to post my picture etc., it is going to be me. I won’t give creeps that satisfaction any longer.
October 27 2009 / 8:13 am
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I think many women are extraordinarily sensitive to counterattack, especially when it takes the form of casting aspersions on their femininity or implicitly threatening physical danger. They’ve been taught that fighting tough makes them less feminine and that all danger must be avoided at all costs; if they buy that, any guy is going to be able to make them back down when he senses he’s getting rings run around him intellectually.
…
How often have you read a female blogger announce she’s going to retire from the fray because the bad atmosphere is too discouraging? It’s commonplace, and yet have you ever read a male blogger taking that line? Guys are raised to expect it and tough it out. And if someone tried to tell them that toughing it out made them less masculine, they’d either stare blankly or just laugh.
October 27 2009 / 8:15 am
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Nice post. Personally, I have found women to be less accepting of women with opinions than men. Many women were raised to believe “Daddy” had the ultimate word. For those raised in a more balanced household, they still bristle at a women “raising her voice.” This only encourages me to say what I mean and mean what I say. So there you go. Welcome to the Wild West!
Halli Casser-Jayne
http://www.thecjpoliticalreport.com
October 27 2009 / 8:46 am
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There is a need for more women bloggers, just as in there needs to be more women in politics. Being the father of three girls and the brother of three sisters, as well as the husband of a career executive I can see first hand the condesention, innapropriatness and totally stupidity of out of control threatened males.
October 27 2009 / 9:03 am
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Good points, and I especially like this comment:
“Men see verbal sparring as a testosterone-fueled challenge. Women see degraded communication and hostility.”
Couldn’t agree more and can’t stand testosterone-fueled verbal sparring.
I don’t have the guts for it and it makes me want to crawl under my desk and stop blogging.
October 27 2009 / 9:33 am
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I am a female, fairly new to blogging, and haven’t had any of these things happen to me yet thank God but I wonder what would happen if I posted my real name? Thank you Dee Dee for sharing your experiences. I intend to take them to heart. How does one go about buying the domain name? I don’t make any money from my blog but it is a great creative outlet for me and it helps me share stuff with my friends and family much more easily than with email. If someone is crazy enough to want to know my bust size it is…sagging.
October 27 2009 / 10:09 am
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The disparity is not as large across the board in blogging… as anyone who reads cooking blogs, ‘family’ blogs, ‘hobby’ blogs and such will know. But politics? Heck yes.
Absolutely right that women don’t like to spar, and that men sexualize them when the men feel threatened. I was the moderator of a big forum as was called a “token c—” which was pretty darned nasty… especially as I did most of the work, and was in no way less qualified than anyone else! And that wasn’t a political blog, it was a hobby forum. Whether it is taught to us, or whether it is hormone based, or brain-wired, women are just less confrontational as a whole. They also take things much more personally.
November 2 2009 / 4:51 pm
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I quit when it became obvious that what was happening to me was far beyond the usual online/anonymous/troll behavior and was a focused attack that kept escalating. The difference between obnoxious commenters vs. an individual (or more than one) obsessed with you personally is something most people who haven’t experienced it can understand.
The online troll wants a reaction.
An online stalker/abuser is obsessed with getting a reaction, from YOU. Ignore a troll and they eventually move on. Ignore an online stalker and they’ll escalate. If words don’t work, let’s try pictures. If those pictures don’t work, let’s make them sexual or violent. You get the idea. And where I agree with you is that for women, “ramping up/escalating” nearly always involves sexual intimidation. Not because it’s what the abuser wants, necessarily (big problem: you really don’t know for certain)… but because it’s such an easy way to harass and potentially frighten a woman. Another is to mention their family.
Put these together and it often simply isn’t worth it. That was certainly true for me.
I did have to wonder a bit when I read about Michele Malkin (I do not follow her so I didn’t know about her having to move). Right after my incident, I saw Michele on television discussing what happened to me (Joan Walsh was there as well). Michele’s big point was what an absolute wimp I was (I don’t disagree) and that she couldn’t understand why people were outraged on my behalf when this same stuff happened to her all the time.
Like Michele, I, too, had to move when my home address (and social security number and family member names) were published online in an anonymous post that also called on readers to USE that information to “show her how you feel”. Within 15 minutes of that post appearing, it was replicated throughout the web in ways that were impossible to eliminate. At one time my own social security number returned more than 200 hits in Google. [key point: the posting of my personal data was *not* part of the original attacks that caused me to speak out, but were posted the next day and claimed to be in "retribution" for speaking out. This is not an insignificant point.]
But one key difference myself and Michele is that I am a tech writer of very modest means, who did my blog as a 100% unpaid labor of love. Moving was a very big deal.
If the price of being a successful blogger includes having to deal with this, we’ll still have plenty of bloggers, but diversity will suffer. It’s one thing when they go after you personally, but another still when you have family members who did not sign up to be part of the attack. And again, in my case, it wasn’t as though I was saying anything that *needed* to be heard in the world.
November 29 2009 / 2:11 pm
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A risk to personal safety is something guy journalists don’t have to deal with as much? Here’s a video of Daniel Pearl being decapitated: http://www.libertyunites.us/video_daniel_pearl_beheading_video-425.html
The biggest reason women don’t blog as much is that women don’t have the balls. See http://guyinism.com/?p=207