Gee, Where Are All the Women Bloggers?

WOMEN'S OPINIONS

Kevin, good grief. You've been online for how long? And it only occurs to you *now* to turn around and say, "wow, we've got some gender inequity going on here in cyberspace, how about that?"

The only reason you get to ignore the glass ceiling, the omnipresent media messages of Not Being Good Enough (as woman, as wife, as mommy, as whatever), the slow, grinding, pressure to avoid technical careers, the near-complete lack of old girls networks in comparison to the depth and breadth of the old boys networks that have run and continue to run our government, our businesses, and our society since before the Union's founding - is because you're in the "right" section of the gene pool. The white XY section.

It takes generations to catch up from this kind of bullshit, this heavily-weighted-against-a-minority system. It ain't gonna happen just because Tim Berners-Lee had a really cool idea*, and the nice folks behind Blogger had another one.

Don't be surprised if women bloggers - or whatever other minority is catching your eye - fail to be impressed that you've noticed our unequal numbers, noticed that women, gays, the disabled, whatever, are maybe, you know, oppressed by society or something; don't be suprised if we fail to jump up and down with glee over the removal of your blinders for one brief, shining moment.

Keep them off, then we might be impressed.

Women's Opinions
Women and Blogging

*Ah, for my readers who aren't familiar with the references: if you're reading this web page, if you're reading any web page, you have Tim to thank for it. The folks behind Blogger, are...the folks behind blogger.
Oh, and while you're at it, go learn about Admiral Grace Hopper, who coined the programming term "bug" and invented the compiler, and Ada Lovelace, who gave the world its very first computer program. A little women's history is good for you. It'll build character.
One final note of disclosure: the comments thread in the second article linked here refers to the University of California at Irvine, my alma mater, with respect to the availability or lack thereof of non-stereotypical women. As a woman with a B.S. in physics from that university, I probably fall in this category. I became aware of Kevin online back in those halcyon days when he was CalPundit. I don't *believe* we've met in person, but I could simply be failing to make a necessary connection between face and online presence.