Technology
Female Bloggers Noticeably Absent From Technorati Survey
Published November 05, 2009 @ 01:49PM PT
Earlier this fall, Technorati published a survey called the "2009 State of the Blogosphere." Some of the findings are interesting such as the idea that "Despite being perceived by some as enemies of the traditional media, bloggers actually carry a journalistic pedigree."
I was trained as a journalist and pursued that passion until I realized that there weren't many jobs left in print reporting. Now I'm a blogger and a new media director. Not surprising that I ended up in the communications field, but what is surprising about this survey are the statistics about gender:
- Two-thirds are male
- 60% are 18-44
- The majority are more affluent and educated than the general population
- 75% have college degrees
- 40% have graduate degrees
- One in three has an annual household income of $75K+
- One in four has an annual household income of $100K+
- Professional and self-employed bloggers are more affluent: nearly half have an annual household income of $75,000 and one third topped the $100,000 level
- More than half are married
- More than half are parents
- Half are employed full time, however ¾ of professional bloggers are employed full time.
Top 10 Feminist Twitter Lists
Published November 02, 2009 @ 09:37AM PT
Well then. Twitter has rolled out yet another popularity tool to keep users addicted to the microblogging platform: Twitter lists.
To me, the lists are useful because they can help organize interest groups, offer a branding structure for companies, offer transparency about who is working with who and drive user generated recommendations that everyone can benefit from.
On the flip-side, these lists can add additional elements of hierarchy to the social media space, which contradicts the purpose of social media in my mind to be the greatest equalizer of information.
Regardless of my qualms, I do want to share some of the feminist Twitters lists being made so we can all continue to elevate women's voices in the online space.
Here are ten of the best female-friendly Twitter lists chosen based on volume of people listed, the creator of the list and objective of the list. It's not a terribly scientific process but tried to use my best judgment.
Just hit "Follow" to add these lists to your profile and click through some of the users to find new people to stay in touch with. Feel free to add additional lists you think should be here in the comments section.
- Women In Politics & Technology (@Sairy)
- Feminist Inspiration (@Illusionists)
- Women, Girls and Feminism (@Glopan)
- Feminists (@MeganCarpentier)
- Awesome Women (@RandomDeanna)
- Feminism (@Radical Feminist)
- Allies in Women's Rights (@RevoltRealWomen)
- Feminist Resources (@ShelbyKnox)
- Black Women in Social Media (@BlogDiva)
- Parents and Parenting (@AnnDouglas)
The Feminist Queries: Cindy Gallop
Published October 26, 2009 @ 09:45AM PT
For today's Feminist Query, I am featuring a woman I admire very much and have been lucky enough to spend a bit of time with here in New York City. Her name is Cindy Gallop. She is half English, half Chinese, grew up in Asia, in Brunei, and read English Literature at Somerville College, Oxford. She began working in theater marketing and then moved to advertising, where she spent the majority of her career working for one agency, global creative network Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH).
She joined BBH in London in 1989 to run global accounts such as Coca-Cola, Polaroid and Ray-Ban; moved to Singapore in 1996 to help start up and run BBH Asia Pacific; and finally, moved to New York in 1998 to start up BBH US. In 2003, she was voted the "Advertising Woman of the Year" by Advertising Women of New York.
Four years ago, Cindy resigned as chairman of BBH to do something different. She now consults for clients who want to change the game in their particular sector, and who are looking for radical reinvention, as well as groundbreaking, innovative, forward-thinking strategic and executional approaches. She is the founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld.com, which is a simple crowdsourced web platform designed to turn good intentions into action and will launch in January 2010. She has also launched another side venture called MakeLoveNotPorn.com at TED 2009. In her "free time", Cindy acts as board adviser to a number of technology and media start-ups.
I hope you enjoy her responses as much as I did and think deeply about her question for you at the end.
Do you call yourself a feminist and if so why? When did you start identifying with the feminist movement?
I call myself a rampant feminist. I amplify that deliberately because I hate the way so many women shy away from the term 'feminist' as if it implied something negative along the lines of 'strident man-hating unfeminine harpy'. I am a self-described feminist because I believe in championing women's rights and women's issues, and doing everything I possibly can personally to help make the world a better and more advantageous place for women. Note I don't use the term 'equal' in there - we are so very, very far away from equality with men in so many respects that are not fully realized or acknowledged by either gender, that I find it hard to use that term casually.
To the second part of your question - I always have.
What were hurdles you faced as a woman in business? What is your advice for other women trying to make it to the top?
All the usual ones. My advice is, never give in to insecurity and lack of confidence - just grit your teeth and barrel through them. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.'
Friday Femme Fatale: Mammograms, Pink Taxis & Lap Dances
Published October 23, 2009 @ 02:21PM PT
I don't know about most of you, but I spent a majority of this week battling a terrible cold. No, it wasn't the "Swine Flu" - but hopefully my writing this week hasn't suffered too much under the influence of various cold medications. You'll have to tell me...
Anyways, here's the latest news in the women's rights arena, just in case anyone tells you the "battle of the sexes" is over:
- The Big Thaw: Charting a New Future for Journalism (Media Consortium)
- Why Has It Taken So Long For ACS To Change Its Tune On Mammogram Benefits? (Feminist Peace Network)
- New Grants for Women Media Entrepreneurs (McCormick Foundation)
- Women, Mothers, Families and Reform (The White House Blog)
- Lap Dances at Yahoo's Hack Days? A Lesson in Monitoring a Global Brand (Fast Company)
- Mexico's pink taxis cater to fed-up females (AP)
- A New Era for Global Women's Rights? (Campus Progress)
- Roman Polanski's rape (Boston.com)
- Demi's Sex Slave Crusade (The Daily Beast)
- 10 Facts on Female Victims of Violence (Department of Justice)
- Fight sexist attacks against women in politics (Women & Politics)
- Benefits and Risks of Cancer Screening Are Not Always Clear, Experts Say (New York Times)
- How the Media Treat Murder (Newsweek)
Cartoon credit: Peaco Todd
Women Rule The Social Web, Except For Digg.com
Published October 16, 2009 @ 08:11AM PT
Women are taking over the social web. Everywhere except for....Digg.com. Not that I couldn't see that coming.
The Feminist Queries: Jon Pincus
Published October 10, 2009 @ 04:58PM PT
For this Feminist Query, I have interviewed my first male subject (gasp!) - Jon Pincus. Jon has always impressed me with his awareness about feminist topics and how important it is to include women and people of color in his discussions about technology, social media, voters rights and many other initiatives. For those who don't know him, he is founder of Qworky, a Seattle-area startup aiming to revolutionize how people work together. His professional career includes research into computer science as a social science, investigating opportunities for "game changing strategies" in the web 2.0 space as General Manger for Strategy Development in Microsoft's Online Services Group, and founder and CTO of venture-funded software engineering startup Intrinsa, whose PREfix tool established the "static analysis" market category and was acquired by Microsoft in 1999. As an activist, he's helped organize Stop REAL ID Now! Get FISA Right, Twitter Vote Report, Voter Suppression Wiki, and #p2, and participated in and written about many other social network activism efforts. In 2010, he's chairing the 20th ACM Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference.
You are the first male subject I have interviewed for the Feminist Queries. Do you call yourself a feminist and if so, why?
I'm honored! Yes I do (at least to the extent a guy can be a feminist), because I embrace the "radical" notion that women are people.
From your point of view, how can we get more men engaged in the women's rights movement?
This isn't something I'm particularly good at, alas, so I don't have any great answers here. One thing that seems like it's been working well is the work the women-in-technology field has been doing challenging conference organizers about lack of representation and sexist behavior -- in several cases this has led to men admitting that there's a problem and people working together to try to fix it.
Google Gets Into Abortion Debate; Max Shoes Steps On Women
Published September 28, 2009 @ 01:02PM PT
I've written in the past about how advertising can often push the envelope in good and bad ways.
Well it seems that this time, women have been hit twice by the world of advertising, but for two very different reasons.
The first story is about our favorite search engine that seems it can do no harm: Google. In a surprise move to steer clear from controversy, Google is now stating it will no longer accept ads that promote abortion services in fifteen countries: Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain and Taiwan. These ads would typically come up when a user searches for keywords and then Google AdWords show up alongside search results as "sponsored links" and are a source of revenue for the search engine company.
Since when did it become okay for Google to determine that abortion is controversial? In my eyes, it's just another medical procedure that individuals may choose to "google" if they need to. Typically, I expect the controversy conversation about abortion to come from anti-choice groups and the Catholic Church, not search engine advertising companies.
The second faux pas comes from Max Shoes that must think it's cute to tie up women in the name of selling their products. However, the advertisement below elicits a strong undertone of racialized violence and becomes particularly suspect when you consider the target audience: men. The ad was produced by German Ad Agency, Jung von Matt.
