Women in Web 2.0: The Mommyblogger

A few weeks ago, I started noticing a trend in some of the latest community site releases from some heavy hitters. iVillage was rolling out a new community feature. Even the usually hyper-paranoid-about-image Disney was launching a user-created content site. There definitely seems to be a trend with companies to attracting women, particularly mothers, to Web 2.0 sites.

However, as I started looking at these sites, and others I would have assumed were also being helmed by women, I noticed something. Even at a site like Etsy, where women seem to be the predominant users of the site, all of the company's main decision-maker people seemed to be men. It was startling, to say the least. I left web development seven years ago, at a time when women weren't the majority, but were definitely becoming more visible as developers. Where are they in Web 2.0?

As I started looking for women in Web 2.0, I ended up with many more questions than I had answers, and turned to some women who are involved in Web 2.0 to help me find some answers. This is the first of what I hope will be a series highlighting the unique presence of women in Web 2.0, as well as hopefully a better idea of what women are looking for in Web 2.0.

The first person I turned to is Linda S. Known better as Sundry, the blogger behind the popular blog Sundry Mourning, Linda has a "day job" as a software marketer. She's also a freelance writer as well as a professional blogger, blogging for the online community Club Mom as well as her personal blog and another called Sundry Buzz.

Cyndy: Thanks for agreeing to talk to Profy, Linda. For starters, I'd like to talk a little bit about the community that formed around your blog. Your original blog, Sundry Mourning, has morphed a bit into what might be termed a "mommy blog." Did you find that the community in your comments changed as your life, and therefore topics, changed?

Linda: My life is different from how it was five years ago when I started writing online, and so the everyday sorts of topics I tend to write about are different as well — the biggest change being the fact that I had a baby in 2005. I don't focus exclusively on parenthood in this blog, but motherhood is part of who I am now. People often choose to read blogs because they have something in common with the writer, and so I think there's been a natural shift in readership to include more parents, primarily women.

Cyndy: There seem to be more women involved in the content creation of Web 2.0 sites rather than the development and execution of them. In addition to your blogging, you also work for a software company, obviously working with a lot of software developers. Do you have any insight into this apparent delineation of women's roles in Web 2.0?

Linda: If you mean development and execution on a coding/architecture level, I'm sure the industry reflects the same trends you see elsewhere in tech, which is that it's still a male-dominated field but the number of women in those roles is growing. From a content/user experience perspective I think women are more suited to developing these sites and services — we're more social by nature, it's easier for us to make connections.

Cyndy: What are your feelings about the term "mommy blogger?"

Linda: I don't love the term mommy blogger, because it's limiting. It's being used to categorize a huge variety of blogs, and I think it's often interpreted in a slightly negative way — very much how "chick lit" can cover any number of books, and always makes you think of a shallow protagonist obsessed with handbags and men.

While it's not my favorite word, I recognize the necessity of being able to put blogs into broad categories, and for that purpose I think we're stuck with it.

Cyndy: There seems to be a recent proliferation of community sites aimed at the same demographic as the "mommy blog" readers, with companies like iVillage and Disney creating community-driven sites. What other areas of particular interest to women do you think are being missed in the development of sites geared toward or involving women?

Linda: It makes a lot of sense that companies are seeing the value that others get from sharing information and experiences with other parents, and jumping on board to try and — of course — monetize that trend. That's a smart move for those businesses, and I think they are what they are: a sort of interactive online women's magazine, focused on a particular demographic. Reshape the focus a little, and you've got a very different sort of site, maybe bringing in an entirely different readership. Just like there's room for Jane and Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping on magazine racks, the possibilities for social sites targeting women is enormous.

Cyndy: If you could develop a community site of your own from the ground up, what would be the focus? What features of current sites would you be sure to add in or avoid?

Linda: I'm not really interested in more Friendster/Orkut/MySpace sites, or ClubMoms or iVillages. My main presence on the web is through the blogs I write and the blogs I read, so I'd rather see more social tools available for blogs — ideally through one service. Maybe something that hooks into other sites like Netflix, Flickr, Amazon, 43Things, WeightWatchers (!) and so on. Or something that displays info from the web of readers a particular blog has, so you have more than a link list to find new people from. Just more ways to exchange information and ideas, but without having to change environments completely to a different site.