Women and the World Wide Web (and other media)
October 31st, 2008
Sinead gives her take on the Women in Media conference and asks some pertinent questions about the role of women in the digital industry.
The Old Market in Hove saw the 2nd annual conference for Women in Media. It was definitely a day for the “red heads” to celebrate and share their exciting experiences in the wonderful world of the web, TV, gaming and music.
Linde Wolters, the Editor of thenextwomen.com urged women to have a more ‘can-do’ attitude, and to be more confident. She promotes this when she writes about female internet heroes.
She mentioned that women need to be more entrepreneurial. Her goal for the online community is to make women “more notable and quotable” but feels that it is difficult with the lack of female role models to inspire others. She talked about the digital industry which is perceived to be “geeky” and predominantly male, but Linde believes that geeks are cool. She says that women are being targeted very closely by marketers online as they believe women to be serious shoppers. More women than men are blogging and getting involved in social networking.
Sophie Major, the Head of Yahoo’s International department informed us that there is greater equality on the web than in other industries. In her experience, gender has not been an issue. She believes that being a woman has helped her stand out in her industry and be noticed.
Rosie Freshwater set up her company Leapfrogg whilst being three months pregnant, at the same time as being made redundant. She now employs 20 people and is such an inspiration to others. She said that being a woman in the digital industry is “great” and she has suffered no prejudice. She admitted that “it’s brill to be a geek”
Some interesting statistics emerged: 33% women work in TV & film, 31% on the web, with lower figures of 13% in the music Industry and 12% in the gaming industry.
This leads to an interesting question for further discussion and blogging:
Are women treated differently than men in the world of the web, TV, gaming and music?
Are women suffering prejudice in these industries?
