A ridiculously long and inconclusive post. I wouldn't bother if I were you.

I keep hearing that women don’t blog. Funny, I think, casting an eye over my blogroll. I’m pretty sure they’re not just pretending to be women. Definitely sure I’m not. Some people even say women blog more than men.*

When I first heard that — which was also when I was new to blogging — I thought, but of course. Makes sense. Blogging is communication, and women are known to rather dig communication. So I was quite confused to later hear all the “women don’t blog” statements. So I thought about it a bit, and formed some wholly unscientific conclusions, based on wildly generalised and contentious assumptions about gendered behaviour that are sure to upset somebody. Shall we begin?

Hopelessly Sexist Axiom 1:
Women dig communication. This is a truth universally acknowledged, though expressed in various ways, from “girls just love to gossip” to “wimmin’s empathy and communication skills are proof of their innate superiority”.

HSA 2:
Women are frequently disinclined to spend large amounts of time on complicated technology. Now, please note what I am not saying. I am not saying: “women don’t get tech”. I am not saying: “women aren’t interested”. I am definitely not saying: “women are dumb”. All I am saying is that most women do generally prefer their tech to be simple, straightforward, easy to use and with an obvious point to it. This is of course far more contentious than #1 and it is far easier to point to the exceptions, but I stand by this statement, largely because of

HSA #3:
Women are busy. By and large, we do more housework; we do more caring for children and elderly parents; we have all kinds of unpaid, often unconsidered demands on our time. (Not to mention the very time-consuming demands of grooming the female body into a socially acceptable form – but that’s a whole other post.)

So by and large, we don’t want to waste time figuring out how to work something that may or may not prove useful and/or fun; we want to first know what it can do for us, and second, we want it to do that with the minimum of foreplay. As it were. I do know women who will happily tinker about with something of dubious function for weeks on end, just to see what it does, but for every one of them, I know 10 men like that, and 10 women saying “show me when it’s working”.

HSA #4:
A lot of what keeps women busy, keeps them isolated, as any mother of small kids will tell you. I don’t think I need elaborate on this; it’s pretty self-explanatory.

So: women discover Blogspot and Livejournal, weep tears of joy because they can now engage with the world on their own terms, in whatever small bites of free time they have available, and it is easy as pie to do so. No fiddling about unless you want to. Blogs offer the full gamut of communication, from idle gossip to high-level discussion of Serious World Affairs. The toddler-imprisoned mum can connect with others similarly oppressed, or remind herself she has a brain by taking part in far more high-brow conversations.***

So: “Where are all the women bloggers?”

Or rather:
“Where are all the women who should be blogging Big Important Opinions on Big Important Subjects on Big High-Profile Sites?”
...and the closely related, but fairer:
"“Why aren't the Big Important Women Bloggers Getting More Attention?"

Let’s unpack this even further. Sorry, it’s terribly old hat, but it must be asked: Who decides what is important, and who decides what sites are the ones that “count”?

I’ve read a squillion posts — far too many to track down and link, but you can start with Bora, above — on the complicated subject of power in the blogosphere, and how it emulates power (and patriarchy) in the “real” world, and whether or not this is inevitable, problematic, or even true. A lot of this conversation is very interesting, complex and (occasionally) important, which is why I won’t reprise it here. Further reading recommended.

I'm supposed to be offering some conclusions, aren't I? Not sure I'm up to that, now it comes to it. Let's try some unsound opinions and uncomfortable arguments instead.

One. Just as modelling and prostitution are the two industries where women are reliably on top, the most famous female bloggers are – quelle surprise – those who write about sex, more or less directly, or who at least suggest sexiness. “Women Only Interesting to Men in Salacious Contexts!” shock.

Two. It’s really very easy to demonstrate that there are a vast number of female bloggers out there, writing about everything from gender issues to knitting to politics to celeb gossip to family life to, y’know, STUFF, just like male bloggers, and many of these blogs are pretty big business. So what exactly is this “no women blogger” crap?

Three. (I can see the comments already.) A provocative question: is it possible that women’s blogs are marginalised because women actually have a broader range of interests than men? Hence, women are more likely to participate in male-run blogs on Big Serious Issues than men are to participate in female-run blogs on “women’s interests” — meaning twice the traffic and googlejuice for men’s blogs.****

Four. How much does it actually matter? Given that (a) women are clearly having a blast online, even if they’re not getting the recognition they possibly deserve, and (b) as we keep forgetting, nobody really cares about blogs anyway.*****

Well. So far it has taken me two days to get this far in writing this post, and I haven’t even started inserting the links. I don’t think I ever had an actual argument, just a collection of half-formed thoughts, and after two days of splicing grrrlblogging in between commercial property news, it’s not getting any easier to roll those thoughts into any form of conclusion.

So. Um. If you’re still here, I think it’s your turn now. You probably think you know what I’m trying to say, even if I don't, and why it’s all wrong. One, two, three… go.

_____
* Though as some other people point out, this could be misleading, since it doesn’t include blogs hosted on independent servers. Which probably means it excludes the dominant blogs, which, arguably**, are male-dominated.
** As in, I’ll argue with you if you deny it.
*** No link here. I know there are such blogs around, but studiously ignore them. Sorry.
**** I warned you this was unscientific.
***** Of course, blogs are hugely influential among bloggers, and there are a lot of bloggers. It’s just as reasonable to argue that nobody cares about journalism, except for those who happen to read newspapers. Lots of people don’t. But do newspaper readers have a disproportionate effect on social attitudes and market trends? Probably, yes. Does the same go for bloggers?