I visited the Burningbird blog yesterday and found a very interesting post from last month. Burningbird’s author - Shelley Powers - was angered by a “Blogging for Women and Girls Workshop” offered at a Boston bookshop. The reason she was upset was because the event description read, “…though the technology is fairly cheap and widely available, most blogs are still written by men.”

There is the ongoing debate/discussion at Misbehaving - you can read the comments here along with more comments by Shelley.

Now, I have to admit the Maven didn’t really know how many blogs were written by men versus women. There are a number of marketing blogs that I enjoy reading written by women - and others that are written by men. My overall perception (not based on anything other than my assumption) was that blogging seemed gender equal.

From Shelley’s entry about whether men write more blogs:

No, this is emphatically, and unequivocably [sic] NOT true. This is based on rumor and hearsay and people’s ill-formed opinion, and that unfortunate and biased Technorati 100 (and other Bloated Ego lists) and I for one am getting sick and tired of this myth being perpetuated…

We’re not being heard, or being linked. Why? A lot of factors are involved, but one of them is NOT that there are fewer of us! What does it take to get this communicated? A bloody act of God? Do we need to part the male sea?

…We don’t need to be ghettoed because of our gender, and categorized as some form of tech deficient po’baby, and helped along like pathetic half-lives just because we don’t have a penis. “Ewww, computers. Hold hands, ladies. Don’t let the bad technology scare you.”

It’s an interesting topic and one that gets people fired up, but the Maven believes it is a bit of a non-issue. I’m not sure what starting a blog has to do with challenging the patriarchy. Maybe I’m missing something, but I have two websites for both of my businesses and a blog. In the realm of starting and running my businesses, I haven’t felt held back by my gender. The only things that seem to hold me back are time, stress, and the occasional hard-to-please client.

When it comes right down to it, women in the United States are moving and shaking. According to the Center for Women’s Business Research:

Between 1997 and 2004, the estimated growth rate in the number of women-owned firms was nearly twice that of all firms (17% vs. 9%), employment expanded at twice the rate of all firms (24% vs. 12%), and estimated revenues kept pace with all firms (39% vs. 34%).

From my perspective as a marketing consultant, women are smart and savvy business owners. They can make effective decisions about their marketing. They can also make smart choices about how they choose to express themselves. Therefore, in my mind whether a woman chooses to blog or not to blog, I can’t see that there is anything holding them back from starting one. Although, if you are committed to the care and daily feeding of a blog, it is an excellent marketing strategy.

If a bookstore wants to target a blogging workshop to help women and girls learn to blog, more power to them. Quite frankly, a blog is very easy to begin. It takes about 5 minutes or less to get started blogging - I bet I could even teach my mom and she isn’t the most Internet-savvy person I know. (Mom, I know you’re probably reading this. Feel free to comment.)

From a marketing perspective, rants get you noticed. But do they win you friends and new customers? Perhaps… I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one!

Hugs and success, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly marketing maven

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