I know some very creative women, one of which even makes a living writing, yet 'blogging' seems such a foreign concept to them.
I should note that these friends are all 39-ish *grin* and I do believe that the lack of access to personal computers in the formative years has a big impact.
But I see another issue, one that has interested me all of my life, and that is the differences, or similarities of art and technology. My Mother was an artist, primarily painted in oils (portraits, still life) and the Father I grew up with was an engineer. I learned quickly that art was about creativity, imagination without borders. While engineering/technology was about fixed dimensions and laws of physics. When I worked for a video game company it was accepted that programmers (engineers) and artist simply didn't get along, and communications were burdensome, fraught with misunderstandings. I stepped into that and found I was able to communicate effectively with both camps (no doubt as a result of my home life ;').
Another thing I noticed was that artists had a much harder time learning new tools, and I was delegated to training them. Seeing a talented person struggle with a tool, getting down in the foxhole with them and wrestling with the different concepts until they have a grasp and then seeing them produce some wonderful content is one of the biggest rewards I have experienced in life.
So I find myself stumbling onto another issue: How to allow creative, imaginative art to be expressed with the least intrusion of 'engineering'? I hope to have an example soon…
[…] You got an interesting point there,
Sam. It’s pretty much true that young women don’t seem to give a shot. But you know how difficult it is doing things tech. Myself I appreciate nice looking things, my father being a painter. My mother a secretary, probably never saw writing as anything more than a burden, and when the internet craze started she was well in her 50’s. So I can see why she doesn’t care much for computers. Perhaps maybe us men have managed to make life comfortable for them in some ways, but technology sure doesn’t seem to be one of them.[…]
Very interesting article. While most of the bloggers I know are women (about 90%) none of us are in the “A List” of bloggers because we do see it as a hobby and a luxury like Lorelle said. In fact, I have a hard time thinking of blogging as serious business… what would one write about?
I adore reading some of the blogs written by women who refer to it as a hobby, self-help, journaling ‘out-loud’, etc.
And I am amazed at how much work Nancy puts into her writing (books). She has to sit down and ‘produce’, like it’s a REAL job! (Actually it is ;’) But having done this for years, I am dying to switch her site over to a blog to see if she can channel some of that writing there…
PS I remember seeing an article over at Lorelle’s that was just about that (What to write about?).
(9/23/07) Note: I moved Nancy’s site over to WordPress about a year ago, and I’m delighted with with how much more ‘interactive’ her relationship with her readers has become. You can visit her at nancyholder.com.
Though I have to admit most of the “grown-up” blogs I read, i.e. ones written by people who’ve left their teenage years behind- blogs usually on CSS and web design etc.- most of the authors are male.
However, in the teenage blogging community it’s actually exactly the opposite- there are many female bloggers and male bloggers are fairly rare to come across. Granted a lot of these blogs are just means of venting feelings- hence why the stereotypical females are more common ;)- it still shows off the differences in age groups, and I suppose the difference in the topics, like has been pointed out above me.
Who knows, perhaps females are the future of the web?