I follow roughly 80 blogs, most of which are pastor or church leadership blogs (thank you, Lord, for Google Reader!). I just realized today, however, that of all those blogs, a mere half dozen are written by women! And two of those six are written by women leaders in my wonderful church, Cobblestone (you'll find them at http://cobblestoneworship.blogspot.com/ and http://matthew10-8.blogspot.com/). I don't think that's a reflection of any bias on my part. I just run across ten or twenty times more male-authored blogs (particularly in the area of church leadership, predictably enough) than female-authored blogs. I bet that has more to do with the church than the internet, as I've read that a majority or more of social network users are female:
Flickr is 55 percent female.It makes me sad that women are so underrepresented in church leadership/pastor blogging (though, like I said, it's predictable enough). So if you know of any women writing great blogs along those lines, let me know.
Twitter is 57 percent female.
Facebook is 57 percent female.
Ning is 59 percent female.
MySpace is 64 percent female.
YouTube and LinkedIn have an equal ratio of males to female. Digg is the only major social network that is heavily skewed towards males, with 64 percent of users being male. (Source: beatblogging.org).
This is interesting, Bob. Excellent point. Probably because we do not feel like the "leaders" God created us to be. While I teach that leadership is a lifestyle, not a position and I am involved in many community/church activities where I am a leader...because I do not have a position in a church as a leader, then I tend not to participate in anything that would require me to have a title of Pastor. But leader, indeed. Perhaps I will work on "Being transformed by the renewing of my mind," and change my thought which in turn changes my feelings which in turn changes my actions...and start blogging! Thanks for caring!
ReplyDeleteWhere are the books? Where are the preachers? For me, I know my leadership position and abilities, but haven't translated that into a regular blog. An easy answer to the question is that we're juggling a lot, and not able - or wanting - to spare the time for the discipline of blogging. Or, perhaps by the time we've put the diapers and carpools behind us, we feel like we're playing catch-up. I blogged for a while, but now just tend to contribute to the blogs of others, particularly the rubicon and FSAOF. I'd suggest that it's probably part the culture of the church, and part the continued responsibilities of women that make the "spare time" choices hard. If I only have a small window of time, do I blog today on leadership or do I have coffee with a friend?
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteI found this list through Brian McLaren's blog...not sure if any of these interest you:
http://www.ginamcclain.com
http://annalightministries.com
http://metacognician.blogspot.com
http://strivetoenter.com