Molly asked the question and I’m here to provide an answer. It may seem strange that a white male is providing the answer, but I step in and help where I can. Even though we pale males are over-represented in the blog-o-whirl, we still serve a purpose sometimes.\
I’m not sure why this is a question, but since it is, I’ll provide an answer. I don’t know why there aren’t more women at the “top” of the blogging heap. But, I think that question is the wrong one to ask. Blogging isn’t, and shouldn’t be a popularity contest, and it’s certainly not a heap. It’s a community, and each person’s blog is their front porch. How many people you have who come to your front porch isn’t as important as the people you want to come to your front porch. If you write for your family, and they’re the ones who come visit, you’re a success as a blogger. If you’ve made progress on whatever goal you’re trying to accomplish by having a blog, then you’re a successful blogger. Stratifying everyone is an old-world paradigm, that I think is damaging to the medium. I could care less how popular a blog is. If the writing grabs me, and the blogger expresses themselves in a unique and personal way, I’d consider their blog successful.\
The first blogs I found were written by women, and they’re well-represented on this list. Here’s my list, in no particular order other than the order they happened to show up in NetNewsWire:
- Heather Armstrong
- Heather Lawver (I got her started blogging… yay me)
- Jodi
- Suzie
- Lifehacker
- Rashunda
- Jessa
- Betsy Devine
- Bazima
- Melly
- Meg
- Andrea
- Molly
- Chelsea
- Sarah
- Gail\
I got into blogging because of Megnut and Heather Champ. So, my view of what makes a blog a blog was formed by reading their words, which may be why I consider all these women successful bloggers. I never look at their “stats” or see how many other people are reading them. They’re just good people, good writers, and all have interesting things to say. Isn’t that enough to consider someone a “success”? The people who make the most noise are probably always going to be at the “top” in terms of stats, and they’ll probably all be men. We know how to make noise and cause trouble. You can look at the state of the world, and it becomes painfully apparent. But, is that success? There are probably just as many women blogging now as men, maybe more. Isn’t that some measure of success?