Good Girls Revisited
Donna Fox wrote an excellent blog post last week which prompted some interesting discussions about women in Internet Marketing.
I didn’t blog immediately about it, partly because I wanted to mull things over a little first (i.e. not be reactionary) but also because I made a lot of my feelings known previously in these posts: Where have all the good girls gone? and Celebrate your differences!
But, this topic is slightly different from the focus of those posts, and in light of my new project (Secret Women’s Business Network) with Allison Reynolds and Barb Sabathil, I wanted to highlight one or two things.
As mentioned before, there are simply fewer women in Internet Marketing, although this balance appears to be gradually shifting, especially with so many women choosing to be SAHMs and wanting a career they can pursue from home. The imbalance is reflected in business as a whole – in the UK the latest figures show that the male to female ratio of self-employed workers is 3:1.
Also, many women have a different focus when it comes to their Internet businesses. Their priorities are often dissimilar to men, and hanging out with the top Internet Marketers is not necessarily one of them.
I enjoy male company and most of my closest friends are men (perhaps a throwback to my years in what was a heavily male-dominated career – radio presenting), but I understand that many women prefer to socialise and “hang out” with other women. That’s why SWBN has been created: to offer an environment where women can learn, network and mastermind with other women. This will appeal to some women more than others.
There are all-female business groups throughout the world, established for just this reason, so it’s not fair to suggest that male Internet Marketers shouldn’t have their own mastermind groups and friendships. We are all drawn to socialise with others like us, and we all like to network with people whose company we enjoy. Internet Marketers are no different. This may mean networking with other women, with other men or with a mixed community – wherever is most comfortable.
However, that wasn’t really what Donna Fox was writing about in her blog post. There are women in Internet Marketing who want and deserve to be known for being at the top of their field, and being accepted into the upper echelons of this business is part of that. They have set themselves goals to be the best at what they do. Part of this would naturally include being invited to speak at seminars and be recognised as one of the movers and shakers. And I think that female marketers at all levels need to see that happening – in any career, we need our mentors and role-models.
While I have no problem with the “boys club” within mastermind groups and social networks (none of us has the right to tell others how to pick their friends and associates), at events and programs that are supposed to bring together the cream of online marketers it seems unlikely (and remiss) that this wouldn’t include a number of women.
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