Everyone's talking about it

All the science blogs are talking about it. Where are all the female science bloggers? The question itself and the long lists of great bloggers who happen to be female bring up a lot of interesting questions about what makes a good blog, what is best for blog (self-)promotion, who is in what science blogging clique, what it means to write about "women's issues," and what it means to be a woman in science. But what these lists (and the blogs that they're on) highlight even more is just how homogeneous the community can be: Where are the non-white science bloggers? Where are the LGBTIQ science bloggers? Where are the science bloggers with disabilities? Where are the non-western science bloggers? What would such different voices bring to the culture of science and science communication? How different would science, science education, and science blogs be if we all were more aware of our positions of privilege, whether based on gender, race, orientation, age, ability, economic status, or whatever else? I know these questions have been asked many times before, but maybe it's time to ask again.

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If we could change this into a "diversity in blogging" rather than a "Women in blogging" thing I would be SO HAPPY. I have spent the last few days hyper-aware of being female and bloggy, and working my way through comment sections with the required degree of caution. It is a good thing to have out once in a while I guess, but there are a lot bigger diversity issues out there and I just want to get back to science-ness really.

It is a good thing to have out once in a while I guess, but there are a lot bigger diversity issues out there and I just want to get back to science-ness really.

I imagine a great deal of internet social interaction, including interaction about science, is not immediately available to native English speakers with limited knowledge of other languages. If most of the science blogging you know about is done in English, it shouldn't be that surprising that it's also being done mostly by white people. How many Hindi science blogs are there? Korean? I bet you there are quite a few, but they're basically off the radar, and it's not just for language reasons-there are systematic divisions in the structure of many internet services that break up the world into distinct geographic regions in ways that increase the odds of developing local connections while decreasing the odds of developing more distant ones.

By dwayne stephenson (not verified) on 12 Feb 2011 #permalink

I wish I could read the awesome Hindi and Korean science blogs out there, but there is a huge amount of diversity within the group of native English speakers (and to a lesser extent, scientists who speak english) so there's no reason we should be satisfied with an overwhelming majority of any one group.