Blogging: Where are the Women?

Fred Clark produced this labor of love at Slacktivist on the weekend under the title “Men on Top: Where are all the Christian Women Bloggers?”  The first part of the title is in reference to the Top 200 chart which comes out every year. Perhaps he should have explained that more clearly. One thing he didn’t explain is that embedded in this post is a link or two (or closer to 150) to some of the women that are out there. (Apologies to those of you on dial-up internet for whom this post might pose a challenge.) Since this blog wins the Sausage Award for the number of links it already contains, it seemed a shame to let all Fred’s work not get seen by the widest possible audience…

As Church Relevance faces another round of criticism for it’s latest male-dominated list of the “Top 200 Church Blogs,” Kent Shaffer looks to dig his way out of the hole with a post titled “An Open Letter to Christian Women Blogs.”

It’s not a terribly constructive response, although it does helpfully provide a neat illustration of why the critics are right.

This “Open Letter” praises “how far women’s rights have come,” and laments that “the inequality gap is still and may always be a great chasm.” And if Church Relevance’s list reflects that great chasm, that’s hardly their fault, right?

I mean, look, Church Relevance is focused on leaders — top-level, influential, transformational, inspirational, highly effective leaders. What could people like that possibly do to change the status quo?

Here’s a bit more from Shaffer’s “Open Letter” and from his earlier response to the same criticism: “Where Are the Top Christian Women Bloggers?”

Almost  every  time  I  update  the  Top  Church  Blogs  list,  one  question  arises:  Where  are  all  the  Christian  women  bloggers?

… We  are  not  trying  to  exclude  women,  and  since  starting  the  list,  have  spent  over  100  hours  trying  to  find  blogs  written  by  women,  non-whites,  and  non-Americans  that  fit  the  topical  scope  and  have  high  enough  traffic  to  make  the  rankings.

… Historically,  men  have  occupied  the  overwhelming  majority  of  church  leadership  positions.  As  most  of  you  know,  this  disparity  is  deeply  rooted  in  denominational  and  theological  beliefs.  At  the  same  time,  there  have  always  been  more  male  bloggers  than  female  bloggers.

…  Within  the  church  blogosphere,  I  expect  that  for  every  female  blogger  excluded  from  the  Top  Church  Blogs  list,  there  could  very  likely  be  3+  male  bloggers  excluded.

There  have  always  been  more  male  bloggers  than  female  bloggers.  And  there  have  always  been  more  male  church  leaders  than  female  church  leaders.

It’s a great chasm and there’s nothing to be done about it — at least nothing that influential, highly effective, Top Ministry Leaders can do.

(OK, too much cutting-and-pasting of links. Hands … cramping ….)

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