I would like to share with you this interesting fact I picked up from a particular report. There was an online survey taken by 1,000 adults and conducted by Synovate/Marketing Daily that suggests that there are more women bloggers than men. Apparently, the survey shares that more women than men are bloggers, and of those Americans who visit blogs, 20% of women own and run their own while only 14% of men do.
Say what? This was news to me.
I’m not quite sure how much of this that I’d buy, since that’s not the impression I’ve had all the time I’ve been reading blogs and maintaining one. But then I realized that I blog in a “male dominated” part of the blogosphere, where the subjects of personal finance, money, debt and especially stocks, investments, business and even high finance are talked about with the gusto of a political blogger letting loose on their next rant. But more and more, new blogs are popping up that are authored by women, even in the financial blogosphere, and this I am pretty excited about :). It’s just nice to have a balance of perspectives, topics and styles out there fueling a very nice diversity in our realm of money.
On this note, Don’t Mess With Taxes and Nina from Queer Cents opened up some discussion on female bloggers in the PF blogosphere and wondered out loud about the representation of women in some recent pf blog lists. Though it’s true that we are disproportionately represented in this part of the blogoshpere, if you look closely, there are a few more lurking women in there than you may first notice. ;). Of course, writing anonymously and in a gender neutral tone doesn’t help to clarify one’s gender either. And to add to the confusion, any writing analysis tool I’ve played with has pegged my writing style as male. You can check out such a tool here. Nevertheless, I’ve noticed that newer pf sites have a lot of female writers behind them (as I carefully check under each blog’s hood), so it may not be too long before we see more females in a new top 100 list!
Spotlighting Female Personal Finance Bloggers
I also appreciate the fact that there have been great efforts by larger, more popular sites to help promote women bloggers in finance. Take for instance Lynn and the folks over at WiseBread.com, who spearheaded a neat event which spotlighted women money bloggers. This came about because there was one year when Lynn and the Wisebreaders attended the BlogHer convention, and noticed the virtual no-show of women PF bloggers at the event.
Well, what Lynn saw at BlogHer may echo reality a bit — women PF bloggers aren’t as visible as female bloggers from other niches OR male bloggers in the PF niche. In fact, this appeared to be the case when I attended a personal finance blog conference in the city, which was sponsored by a financial software group. Out of over 20 attendees, I was the only female at the event!
At any rate, Wise Bread then decided to take the initiative to bring personal finance women bloggers to the forefront and thereby opened their forums with some interesting threads focusing on personal finance, women and blogging. Furthermore, I was extremely honored that Will, Lynn, Greg and the gang at Wise Bread had invited me to their financial Q & A at their forums. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with a lot of folks who wanted to talk about finance and small business.
So if you have a moment, you may want to check out the forums and engage in some elbow rubbing 😉 .
Know Any Women Money Bloggers?
I wanted to close by sharing just a few of the PF blogs I actively follow that are by women: Almost Frugal, Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, Blogging Away Debt, My Open Wallet, Boston Gal’s Open Wallet, Frugal For Life, QueerCents, Don’t Mess With Taxes, Frugal Duchess, Grad Money Matters, Paid Twice, Plonkee Money, Chief Family Officer, Money and Values, Tired But Happy, Millionaire Mommy Next Door.
So let’s hear it for a few of these bloggers. I always wanted to put together a few favorite articles from some great blogs by women! I know there are many more such blogs, and I apologize for whom I’ve missed, but I hope to be able to write about them next time. Here’s what I had the pleasure to read.
Tricia @ Blogging Away Debt melted my heart with her story, It’s Worth A Whole Lot More. Can anything be any more heartwarming?
Sharon @ The Frugal Duchess shares with us My Cash-Only Status Changes: New Credit Card; New Rules? She has great tips on watching the use of her credit card.
Madame X @ My Open Wallet talks about something I found very intriguing Is LASIK worth it? I’d love to have LASIK done to me, but I can’t. First, I’m technically legally blind, which means without my spectacles or lenses, I will be completely unable to function. Second, I am so incredibly myopic that my corneas won’t be able to handle the “lasering” needed to get me to 20/20. Ugggh! So frustrating.
This just barely scratches the surface of the female pf blogging circle. I know for a fact that there are many wonderful finance-based blogs out there that are run by the ladies. If you’d like to contribute to this conversation, drop us a comment!
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{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
If you don’t mind, here is one more female personal finance blogger for your list.
Lynnae at http://www.beingfrugal.net/
Great list! I think I subscribe to about 2/3 of them.
I’m a female blogger. I actually follow almost all of the blogs in your female list. 🙂
Thanks for keeping this conversation alive and for digging deeper. And mea culpa for overlooking you in my list. Just goes to show that we are out there and we’re not going away … until we’re able to afford the lifestyle we deserve and want!
Hey there. I am a female PF Blogger so I would like you to check out my site too. Maybe I will be on your list to follow someday soon.
Thanks everyone! Yes, I may not have had the opportunity to come across other cool female pf blogs. And there are quite a good number out there I am aware of whom I would like to know a lot better! I’d love to keep tabs on all the female run sites… then maybe in time we can all band together and take over the pf world… *evil chuckle* 😉
Yup, sign me up to the “Female PF Blogger” brigade 🙂 If you want to narrow down the stats even more, I’m still looking for UK-based pf blogs – not many of us around at ALL!
I’m here for the female pf blog revolution, where do I sign up.
SVB, count me in on your take-over plan 😉
Annie, you know that Plonkee is from the UK right? Oh and don’t worry, I got your names down here so I know whom to reach when I hatch the evil plan… 😉
Dimes to Dollars, Escape Brooklyn, One Big Mortar Board, English Major Money, Money and Values, Experiments in Finance, Ms. MiniDucky, Cal Girl Finance (who has revived), Debt Hater, Dimple’s Divine Domain, Savvy Saver, Udandi, Well-Heeled, Beachgirl, Kira at Penny Foolish, and I think, MoneyMonk are all women. I am lazy about my blogroll, but I visit all of these blogs.
Thank you for being a regular reader. I have the warm fuzzies now. I have to say I really like your blog partly because your gender isn’t always readily apparent in how you write or the topics about which you write. That’s actually a good thing because I stay focused on your content.
Keep up the great work!
And SF Money Musings, who is a guest blogger of mine. How could I forget? *smacks forehead*
Cheers to all the other female PF bloggers out there! I love following the stories of and sharing ideas with other like-minded ladies.
I think one reason male bloggers dominate the rankings might be that they are more likely to blog as a business-meaning they are more likely to aggressively market and monetize their blogs. We females (myself currently included) are often content to blog for personal reasons and to ignore stats like traffic, blog rank, and ad income.
Also, in my limted blogging experiece, female bloggers more often chronicle their personal journeys; topics generally include saving strategies, frugality, and eliminating debt. Males blog more often about investing strategies, the stock market, portfolio analysis, etc. Just an observation.
Guys are also posting more “how you can be rich” type articles that attract people from all different places. I think female pf bloggers also don’t throw out as many charts and figures as the guys. I like that female bloggers write more personal stuff too.
Thanks for listing some female pf blogger sites on here because I wasn’t as familiar with some of them. 🙂 What I have observed as well was that topics tend to fall along gender lines. So maybe it was erroneous for me to say that pf blogging is “male-dominated” because it is only so much this way depending on what topics you talk about. The top frugal blogs are IMO female :).
I agree with Meg about why rankings and readership may be skewed towards males — the audience for business and investment is still mostly male so you’d attract this readership by focusing on such topics.
Hmm. I’m a pf blogger and I think you’re right. I follow a lot of the blogs on your list already, so in my reader it seems balanced. The guys’ blogs definitely have more comments on average, though.
Thanks for the mention Mapgirl. I’m having a hard time getting my blog re-going, so it’s great to see that someone out there is reading it.
I agree with Meg’s comment. The focus on men & women’s blogs in the personal finance sphere often differ. I typically enjoy blogs written by women more than men. 🙂
I guess I’m another female blogger to add to the list. I’m still working on changing over to a different site, but I have started discussing personal finance…
Thanks! Plonkee was one that I hadn’t previously discovered – she’s now added to my GoogleReader feed 😀
What a great resource this post is…
(Oh no! Now I sound like one of those “Great Post! Visit my site!” comments… sorry!)
Annie, that’s great :). I’m glad this post has been helpful and has added to some awareness of female-maintained pf sites. If you’d like to drop us a line here if you are a female pf/money blogger, please do so. I may just have to create a new blogroll page for you guys. 🙂
And don’t forget my NYC homegirls Frugal Zeitgeist and Millionaire Artist.
I’ve considered starting a separate blogroll just highlighting female PF bloggers– though there are many PF topics that are gender-neutral, and many male bloggers whose blogs I really enjoy, I also find that the female perspective on personal finance is often more interesting to me, just because we can identify with each other more easily, I guess!
It may sound stereotypical and overgeneralizing but it seems that male bloggers often spend more time on the hard numbers nuts and bolts of finance, such as interest rates and portfolio allocations, whereas women seem to write more about how money actually relates to living one’s life!
checking in as a female blogger
You know what I think? Fewer female bloggers is symptomatic of a broader issue. We women are not talk nearly enough about money.
I’m with all of you in wanting to change that. I’ve been writing books about the subject for a decade, and I’ve just started blogging.
I’d love you all to come visit my site: http://www.barbarastanny.worpress.com.
Your feedback is welcomed.
Barbara Stanny, author
http://www.barbarastanny.com
I’m also a female PF Blogger. I write the majority of the articles on my website and my husband contributes when he can. It’s primarily from a woman’s point of view. Great list and I hope to be on it someday! Thanks!
ooops! I wrote the wrong URL in my post. The correct address for my blog is:
http://barbarastanny.wordpress.com
Hope you come visit me there…
Barbara Stanny, author
http://www.barbarastanny.com
You can add me to the list too. I read a good mix of blogs by male and female bloggers. I think both genders offer an interesting mix of topics and discussion points from different points of view. However, I have found very few female bloggers out there with a high net worth. Of course, not all bloggers discuss their finances at this level but overall I have noticed far more men in this category than women.
I’m a female blogger, however I wouldn’t dare to put myself in such good company.
I’m a living example of an intelligent woman (sorry not bragging) who for some reason can manage a budget, which requires me achieve two million pounds pure profit for her company every year, and yet is in debt through years of over spending!
I have however wised up. Start Late, Finish Rich!
I currently write my pf posts on my personal blog but am thinking of moving them onto their own separate blog that is dedicated solely to personal finance issues.
Till then my pf posts can be found here. I am calling it my personal finance “miniblog” (blog within a blog) until I get a chance to move the posts onto their own site.
*The address is: cottoncandypink.blogspot.com and click on the personal finance label in the sidebar.
Thanks for the mention, Mapgirl, and I’d like to add MoneyDummmy’s a great lady blogger as well!
Checking in as another female Personal Finance blogger with an emphasis on investments and wealth accumulation.
Reporting for duty!
Hi there,
I saw the list, in fact I’m on it. I think a lot of it has to do with insecurity at putting ourselves out there in a field where women traditionally aren’t experts. Not that anyone has explicitly said ‘oh you can’t be an expert’, just that people might feel that, because they also write about their kids or coupons, they can’t be an expert.
As for myself, I don’t consider myself a personal finance expert, and I’m not interested in giving people answers, which is what I think a lot of people look for when they read the bigger male bloggers.
I am a personal finance blogger, loud and proud. And I’d love to say so at Blogger 09, if only I can afford the plane ticket from France!
I did not realize that there were so few women personal finance bloggers. While I have not found many in my particular situation, there seemed to be a goodly share of blogging women married with or without children talking about their finances. Many different voices with a variety of perspectives at least to my eyes. I too would be disappointed to see such low attendance at a gathering of women pf bloggers.
I wonder how many pfbloggers, male or female, go to conferences in the first place; the BlogHer conference probably isn’t representative.
@Kelly – It’s wonderful that we can all have a voice in this online community. I think we’re all contributing to the collective financial knowledge of the community regardless of how we’re presenting it. From others’ experiences — even in the realms of raising a family or handling daily finance — we are all talking about money. And we’re learning from each other. So I’m glad we’re all here to share in the discussion.
@Frugal Pursuit – yours was a great carnival hosted. I was happy to be part of it!
@Jim – Ah, but the BlogHer conference was highly promoted and many of us heard about it. It was just interesting to see that it was dominated by “parenting” bloggers and although there may be a reasonable number of financial blogging women out there, an incredibly small percentage showed up. Could we frugal pf bloggers be too frugal to show up at conferences 😉 ?
Thanks! I will have to check out the forums.
Hi there,
I loved the article, and yes I am a considerably new female finance blogger. Almost 10 months of blogging.
Check me at orange4money.blogspot.com.
Love your blog,
Orange
There are plenty of us females out here blogging away. I think its funny for you to think the subjects of personal finance, money, debt and especially stocks, investments, business and even high finance are “male dominated” part of the blogosphere. Generally when I blog in that arena I just use a generic name.
@Annakat,
This question was raised in the Wise Bread blog and forums. I’d love to learn more about the women out there writing about these subjects. Usually, women will prefer to talk about money-saving topics and frugality-oriented matters. I know a handful who tackle other financial topics (small business, taxes, investments) but would love to network with more women bloggers for sure! 🙂
When it comes to investments, the study says women are advised to place their money in high risk assets to maximize long term gain, but that of course also carries an equally high risk they’ll have nothing at all in the future.
I’m a female personal finance blogger….. and I’m not a stay at home mom and I don’t blog about shopping or coupons… maybe the focus on the economy and investment analysis gets me pegged as “male” by some readers – it’s happened:)
I really like a lady named Manisha Thakor. She is a really fun lady, i saw her the other day on TV and is all about personal finance.
Female bloggers are way more creative when it comes to finance and money. That depends on the topic though. It’s called woman power. You could check it out here.
Female bloggers are the shit!
Something tells me the last commenter is Manisha Thakor herself spamming the comments LOL
Ah, haha! Who is Manisha? I shall have to check her out! 🙂 Thanks Ginger, that’s too funny! Perhaps it’s someone who works for her though. That seems pretty common (to outsource some of that “marketing”).