Friday, November 02, 2007

Blogroll Updates

Periodically, I try to update my blogroll to add new links, delete inactive ones, etc. This time, I decided to also add a new feature: I have added a "F" to all the blogs written by women, and a "M" to all blogs written by men. Blogs written by teams or couples (or hermaphrodites) get a "MF."

While doing this, I noticed a few interesting things: first of all, my blogroll is a pretty even split of men and women. I was sort of thinking I might have more men, because people are always saying that there tend to be more male bloggers in the finance sphere. Then I thought I might have more women, because I am a woman and I sometimes find that I relate more to the way other women tend to write about finances. But I guess those two things balanced each other out!
The other thing I found funny was this: I have to admit that I don't regularly read every single blog I link to. Some are links that people requested I add, and some are things I found on my own and liked, but I just don't have time to read as many blogs as I'd like to. So when I was adding all my little Fs and Ms, there were a few sites I had to click through to to figure out who they were written by. Most blogs make the gender of the writer immediately obvious-- but some make it downright difficult to determine! There were a couple of sites that I had to really search to determine whether the blogger was male or female. And who knows, maybe I still got it wrong, but clues like talking about how one's clothes fit and wearing earrings, though ambiguous, hint at the writer's being female. (If I've gotten anyone wrong, let me know! Likewise, if you have a sex change and need an update...)

Nina of Sitting Pretty has talked about the difference in how finance articles are written for men and women in a post at BlogHer, and in a guest post at I Will Teach You to Be Rich, where "women and money" was the subject of a series of articles, prompted by Ramit's realization that his audience skewed more towards males. Trent at The Simple Dollar has also written a post on this issue, called Should Men and Women Receive Different Personal Finance Advice. The Digerati Life asks Where are the Female Personal Finance Bloggers and links to Don't Mess with Taxes's take on the topic.

I've never done a reader survey to see if my audience is more female than male, or to ask if my female readers might like to see more posts and links highlighting specifically female perspectives on money. But I thought it would be nice to highlight some of the many blogs written by women and make them easier to find. In the words of my favorite female rapper YoYo, "I'm all about uprightin' upliftin' the woman," at least to whatever extent I can do that with my little blogroll!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, concerning your readers ... I'll start it off: I'm a woman. I was brought up to think someone else would take care of the finances, but it soon became clear that wasn't the case any more. I had a lot of catching up to do, and I appreciate all the help I can get. I'm also happy to report that, after 56 years of saying, "I don't need to know how to do the bills, your dad does them every month and I trust him," my mother has asked him to teach her how. I don't think he has any health issues that have scared her, I think she has just come to the conclusion that it's more scary not to know where you stand, and less scary if you have some control. She's been listening to me talk about my finances for a few years. And she'd like to be a citizen of the 21st century. So go, Mom, go! Once she's comfortable with that, I'm going to work on getting her to use the computer for something other than playing Scrabble, so she can read all the interesting personal finance blogs! (Oh, okay, she'll probably just want to email the granddaughter, but it's a start.)

Anonymous said...

I would try to claim masculinity, but that'd be silly. Interesting idea.

Sally said...

Female reader here, and a young'un too--I'm 22. And I just joined on as a writer for A Penny Saved.

Anonymous said...

I was so confused this morning. I was like M/F? Then I thought about it for another second and I knew what was going on.

I'm a female, 31 (oops. I always tend to say that age accidentally for some unknown reason. I guess it was a good year), 33.

I like blogs for their writing and interest. It doesn't matter whether the advice given comes from a male or female, but it is nice knowing as an added bonus.
-Tasha

Anonymous said...

how did you know I was an M?

Madame X said...

Living Off Dividends-- when you emailed me about your blog name change, I thought your name sounded male. As for the content on your site, it is very neutral but I just got a male vibe!

the Rew Crew said...

I'm a F, and I think adding gender information for your readers can make it interesting. Obviously the topic of finance applies to everyone, but there may be future discussions that more F's, or M's, may be interested in, so go with it.

frugal zeitgeist said...

Heh heh heh. I thought the F was my grade. ;-)