When I saw the NYT Caucus Blog today questioning why there are more men involved in online politics, I groaned, yet here I am writing about it.

It’s not enough that gender discussions surround us everywhere. Didn’t the Internet even things out? Look at the statistics. Both Pew and George Washington University found that not only are men and women equally online, but they’re equally engaged in political discussions online.

We’ve covered the gender gap in blogging and the gender gap in politics. Why not the gender gap in online politics?

For some reason, people believe that there are more men blogging about politics than women. Study after study disproves this. Women and men write equally about politics, and both sexes are equally engaged in online activities. There’s a far larger age gap than gender. I have a theory, but I’ll make you read my entire post first.

The comments on this post are fascinating. Many seem to rely on stereotypes.

Stereotype #1: The fairer, gentler sex is far less aggressive and bored with politics.

Men are more competitive. While women seek company and understanding when conversing, men are always trying to one up each other. This transfers over into politics quite well.
— Posted by hacp

OK Ms. Seelye, I’ll give it a shot,

1) I agree with you, regretfully, I think it’s about 3 to 1 male to female.
2) It’s probably a combination of factors, men may be slightly more interested in politics generally, but men are definitely conditioned to be more interactive in early schooling. Men are also seemingly naturally more aggressive, less concerned with what people think of them, and so on.

Also I wish there were more women participating, they’re generally more intelligent, compassionate, and able to compromise. Hope that helps you, and I tried to keep it short.
— Posted by Dan Stackhouse

Women don’t blog politics because they don’t talk politics. Where I come from (Germany), if you go to a dinner party, at some point everybody will talk about politics - ususally only shortly, but still.
Here, if my husband and I go to a dinner party, politics are off the table, and after dinner the guys retreat in a corner, talking sports and politics, and the girls clean up and talk about their kids.
Personally, I think women should be much more involved in politics, actively, on blogs, newspapers, rallies etc. Because when politics go wrong, women and children are the ones who suffer the most.
— Posted by Petra

I don’t think that women are into political blogging as much as men are. Politics seem to bore most of them. I think that they would be more into chat rooms and my space or activities that relate to their personal hobbies in some way. I think politics has a irresistible lure to most men such as myself. We like to express our opinions.
— Posted by cliff jones

WTF? Women aren’t as aggressive as men? Have you seen the movie Mean Girls? It’s the most accurate protrayal of women out there. There are now more women in college, working in DC and playing sports than ever before. We’re not competitive or aggressive? Put more than three women together, and there will be competition. It’s our nature. There’s a reason why most of my friends from college are men. The drama from my sorority was enough to make me flee estrogen-dominated situations.

I also can’t believe that people don’t believe that women aren’t involved or interested in politics. That’s pure crap. That’s the same mentality that we don’t have shoes or electricity in the South. Not everyone is a political creature, but there are equal numbers of men who are bored with politics as there are women.

Stereotype #2 Men outnumber women online.

I think men do outnumber women at least 2 to 1 and sometimes as high as 3 to 1.

My initial reaction was similar to poster one regarding the competitive nature of both men and the race. However, my observation while participating in these blogs over the last 10 months is that while a larger percentage of women are analytical in their aproach the remaining number are clearly as emotionally partisan and competitive as their male counterparts.
-Posted by Romulo

We have equality online. As I mentioned it earlier, numerous studies show it. Let me repeat that. MEN AND WOMEN EQUALLY ENGAGE IN POLITICS ON THE INTERNET.

Stereotype #3: Politics online is a “good old boys club.”

As a feminist blogger, I think we need to recognize first and foremost that there are a large number of women engaging online politically, but there’s also an “old boys’ club” mentality among the most popular political blogs just as there still is in the political sphere offline; in short, many political bloggers who are female just aren’t acknowledged. And since female readers of political blogs see this happening, this isn’t too encouraging to say, start their own blog or engage in online political conversation when it’s largely dominated by men.
-Posted by Vanessa Valenti

It’s the same old book, 99th chapter that says women don’t have credibility, don’t get respect. In my technology field, I have 40 years experience, and I have performed innovative and revolutionary feats. However, the young men (who look like techies) get the respect. They have credibility, even when they don’t have a clue as to what they are recommending.

Women know this, even the young women know this. That’s why we post under male names, or under initials, where the reader cannot tell the sex. You see, quite often, the women are the brains of the outfit, and the men are taking the credit. You might as well place women in an anonymous think tank, because they’re not going to get the credit, anyway.

We have a long way to go, Ladies. We’re not there yet. As #14 Abe said: “Is it women who aren’t interested in politics or politics that isn’t interested in women?” How smart you are, Abe! I couldn’t have said it better, myself.
— Posted by GK in OKC

This is the major feminist whine: Men don’t take us seriously. After forty years of it, haven’t we made any progress? Sure there’s still an income disparity but that’s because WE DON’T ASK FOR RAISES. If you feel like people don’t take you seriously, it’s probably an insecurity thing. Get a shot of self-esteem, focus on doing your job and stop complaining about men taking the credit and getting all the respect.

Perhaps many of leading lefty blogs are men, but on the right, there are powerful women. We don’t make a big deal out of it because the right operates by merit while the left focuses on quotas. If someone only considered my opinion because I was female or fit some other demographic like blondes who blog, I’d be highly insulted. I’ve worked hard to get where I am and hope that no quotas or special treatment was given to me because a bubble on an government form needed to be filled.

Why don’t you work to break this perceived stereotype? The only way to change things is to take action, not complain about it. Don’t protest until Congress earmarks money to encourage women in the online political process. Get out there and write or comment and encouarage other women to do the same.

Stereotype #4: But Bloggers are so mean!

Women are discouraged by name-calling and personal attacks on blog sites. Look how many personal attacks and name-callings in this news report’s blog regarding Bill Clinton’s interview. Most of them are from Obama supporters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/us/politics/29clinton .html?ref=politics

I thought if someone running on the slogan to “unite” the nation at lease they will show in their action. I did not know there were so much hatred among Obama supporters towards their fellow democrats. It is a big turn off to many women readers.
— Posted by Wendy

Good questions. I am a woman. Personally I post comments under fake male names to some blogs (not this one), where postings under a female name are routinely attacked in ways that I consider unfair or deceptive. Some of those blogs are interesting places, so I don’t feel that I should be avoiding them. There are so many questions to think about in this world, I feel it’s better to participate, even if I have to pose as male. I feel it would be a waste to throw all my energy into a single narrow goal like creating a woman-friendly Internet.
— Posted by corinne

Politics is a sport with a lot of bloodletting, and men, by their very nature, get a thrill watching candidates duke it out. It is congenital.

Women tend to avert their eyes or leave when the violence gets nauseating. And this election season is looking more savage and merciless than any other.

While women are more tuned in to politics these days - perhaps because of the inclusion of a female candidate and a male colored one - men are tuned in just as much. That’s why they are still ahead, I think.

But with a plethora of androgynous monikers on this blog box, I am curious how you came to draw that conclusion.
— Posted by Maya Teague

Newsflash. The Internets can be mean. Actually, feminists are some of the meanest ones out there, but whatever. (I broke with the sisterhood, so I should be virtually beat up.) Any time people are expressing their opinions, especially behind the protection of our computers, people are going to be mean. We discuss polarized issues. Not everyone is going to agree, and tempers are going to flare. If you can’t handle mean comments, don’t enter the blogosphere. Growing a thick skin is a prereq for politics. The echo chamber gets louder and meaner with each post.

Politics is a nasty field. It always has been. If you think that today’s name calling is particularly harsh, take a few minutes to read about 19th century campaigns in America and England. The process today is rather civil compared to what happened in elections past.

Stereotype #5 Men have more time to spend online ’cause they aren’t birthin’ the babies.

Men are more interested because they have more time to be interested. They don’t feel compelled to cook a meal when the family is hungry or to wash clothes when the closet is almost empty, or to grocery shop, wash dishes, make beds or vacuum. Women care about the issues involved in politics but they are too busy taking care of everyone to have time to sit down, read, listen, sort out all the issues. It’s just easier to pretend it’s not important to you since you can’t find the time to do anything about it anyway.
— Posted by Lanore

Men have more free time than women, probably because they are natural idlers and more of them are out of work.
They also like to gossip more, like to show-off more, like to force quasi-muscular opinions more on the unseen multitudes that they think are eager to hear them, want recognition more, and all the while, unlike women, as a rule, confusing mid-cult verities with insight.
The odds that this makes the world a better place are 3-1 against.
— Posted by Jazzbeaux Beiderbecke

Wow, I feel very sorry for the men in Lanore and Jezzbeaux’s lives. If women are so busy taking care of hearth and home, why are mommybloggers so powerful? There are a lot of women who embrace the Internet because it gave them a voice. If a woman is interested in something, she’ll find the time for it.

While studies of blogs show that men and women are discussing politics in equal numbers, they don’t question the type of blogs that are written. To my knowledge (and someone correct me if I’m wrong), there haven’t been any studies on the topics most blogged about by gender. I hypothesize that men are far more likely to devote themselves to a topic–sports, politics, cars, movies, etc. Women are complicated creatures and are likely to blog about a variety of subjects. You’d be stupid to label a woman with just one thing she’s interested in. Why should she label her blog? Take this blog for example. Is it about politics, the South, life in DC, dogs, movies, fashion, communications, or Chattanooga? The answer: all of the above.

Since we’re trending towards topical blogs, and if men are more likely to stay within one topic, their blogs will float to the top. Women are still blogging about politics, donating online and friending politicians on Facebook, but it’s just one of many activities.

There’s also the study about women promoting themselves. If women are less likely to ask for a raise, they’re going to be less likely to promote their blogs or identify themselves as “expert bloggers.” Your blog is what you put into it. Most of this gender blogging debate is based on stereotypes and generalizations. We really need to do more research into the reasons why both genders blog. Are women only posting to create a community, and men to stroke their egos and armchair pundit? It’s an insult to all bloggers to assume so much. The web challenges every trend about the media, why should it follow the same paths of gender studies?

I’m also curious if more women are interested in the issues or campaigns? If you look at issue-related blogs, women will out-number men. If you look at the minutae of political races, it’s probably going to be men. Can you compare the two? Men are more detail-oriented and look to the short-run. Women need to see the big picture. Again, there’s an awesome survey in here that someone needs to conduct. Even I’m citing prior studies on men and women. If we’re ever going to get past this gender on the web issue, someone needs to research it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 10:28 pm and is filed under feminism, politics, blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.