Michelle posted her first rant on her blog today. Congrats, Michelle! You’re now an official member of the BlogoSphere!
She’s writing in response to a couple of articles on the lack of women in social media, and if you follow the discussion back - including some great comments on the articles - the topic encompasses the seeming lack of women in technology overall. I’ll say it now, I don’t know why there is an imbalance. Do I think the Web tech speaking circuits are dominated by several of the same faces? Yes. I do. I’ve been at SXSW Interactive for five years, almost all in a row. I’ve attended An Event Apart, and I follow quite a few of the “Weblebrities” online. There are a ton of prominent men in this circle and very few prominent women.
I don’t have a clue as to why.
I can only fall back on some guesses and my personal experiences. I was raised by a mother who stayed at home almost 13 years to raise me and my two siblings. at the end of that time, she finished a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in computer science. (There weren’t enough computing courses offered at the university at that time to make up a full degree.) She went on to teach in secondary schools. The relevant result of all this is that my first exposure to computers came from my mother; I’ve never not associated women and computers. That said, once I got into the industry - a long, windy, adventurous trip later - I noticed many, many more men than women.
Michelle asks, “Why does the lack of prominent women in social media surprise anyone?” She points out that in the country (*cough*USA*cough*) not on the list for having a female head of state, should we be surprised we have a lack of women in social media speaking gigs?
Definitely a correlation, and one that deserves much more attention than it gets. Are we, as an industry, leaving out people because of their gender? Is it that men promote themselves in this realm better / more than women? Is it a lack of women at the conference organizer level?
It’s an uncomfortable subject for many. It cuts down to a deeply personal level in us, a group already made up of uncomfortable, fidgety socially awkward nerds, geeks and dweebs. Uncomfortable though it may be, we’ve got to look at this. What makes this tribe, to borrow Molly’s term, so special is our sense of community. SXSW Interactive is like our Burning Man, Spring Break, and family reunion all rolled into one, topped with a martini or two (or three, or four). It’s got that festive, vibrant feel because of the closeness in the community.
The community’s got a whole lot more people in it, if anyone happened to notice the number of attendees at SXSW Interactive this year, compared to the previous three. That’s a good barometer of the industry. Unfortunately, the lack of women speaking is also a barometer of the industry. We need to look at it. Get over the uncomfortableness and let’s see what’s going on, what we can do as a whole, and what we as individuals, most of all, can do.
(As a trailing aside, SXSW Interactive 2009 panel submissions begin June 2. Start getting those ideas together and get yourself out there.)
