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Tuesday, August 08, 2006
9%
A few weeks ago I volunteered to be The Ooze's new Faith Editor. I don't think anyone had been working on the articles for quite some time as there were dozens of submissions waiting to be approved and scheduled for publication. Not that I'm complaining - editing is something I really like to do!

It took a week or so before everything was fully organized, and the good news is that The Ooze will now have new articles coming out every week for the next several months. The bad news is that only nine of the ninety-eight (or 9.18%) authors scheduled to be published in the next half-year or so are female.

9%? When women make up 51% of the general (US) population? That seems like a really low figure especially for a site as EC and pomo-friendly as The Ooze.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating any kind of quota system for The Ooze or any other site. I've met some truly gifted male writers in the short time I've been volunteering and I'm happy to publish such well-written work.

But I would like to see more - many more - women participate in The Conversation. The Emerging Women blog et. al. that is starting up at Emergent Village is an excellent start, although to be honest I do worry a bit about it being perceived as the "women's corner" of the conversation....especially if EC'ers as a community aren't also working to integrate those of us as the margins more fully into the group. It's a both/and situation, not an either/or.

So, what can I do to change this situation? What can you do? Any suggestion is welcomed...even if you tell me that I'm thinking too much about this. ;)

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posted by Lydia at 12:41 PM ¤ Permalink ¤


11 Comments:


  • At 8/08/2006 08:22:00 PM, Blogger Makeesha

    I think I shall jog over to the ooze and find out how to submit stuff...that will be my contribution to growing the numbers of female voices :)

     

  • At 8/09/2006 11:32:00 AM, Blogger Lydia

    Lol, I wasn't expecting to find any authors with that post! :)

    But if you're really interested in doing so, Makeesha, you can submit stuff here: http://www.theooze.com/articles/submit.cfm

     

  • At 8/09/2006 05:03:00 PM, Blogger Julie

    btw... you linked to the old emergent village site in that post. Hopefully having the women's corner that accepts articles by women will help prompt women to write more and use their voice!

     

  • At 8/09/2006 05:31:00 PM, Blogger Lydia

    Thanks, Julie. I fixed the link.

     

  • At 8/09/2006 05:34:00 PM, Blogger Lydia

    and Makeesha - it turns out that you need to be logged in The Ooze in order to submit an article.

    If you don't have or don't want to get a username at The Ooze you can send your submission to galadriel @ theooze dot com (minus the spaces, of course - I'm trying to fool any of those software programs that troll blogs looking for email addresses.)

     

  • At 8/10/2006 12:16:00 PM, Blogger Julie

    we are fearful
    we aren't given the time
    we don't have the training
    ... to name a few reasons/excuses

     

  • At 8/11/2006 05:04:00 PM, Blogger Lydia

    Why aren't women writing/contributing to the emergent conversation?

    Few, if any, female role models.

    Women seem to be less likely to have advanced theological degrees.

    And speaking as someone who doesn't have one of those degrees, reading the work of people who do can be intimidating and can make me less likely to write on the topic of faith.

    Less time to think. Most of the couples with kids that I've known are at least somewhat lopsided in the parenting and household duties , with the mom doing most of the day-to-day discipline, cleaning, cooking, etc etc.

    There seems to be a vocal minority of christian men who aren't comfortable talking about serious issues like religion with women.

     

  • At 8/20/2006 04:27:00 PM, Blogger Charlotte Wyncoop

    So I asked myself the question and the internal conversion went something like this...
    Why not?
    What kind of articles are they looking for?
    People wouldn't read me, I'd get the same sort of brush off I usually get because I don't match the "right" model.
    Well, so? Does it mean I shouldn't write?
    Okay, so with what time?
    Is it really worth my time?
    Fine, I'll write something, but I'll just post it on my blog. I'm not diving in with sharks - I don't have any chain mail.
    Yeah, God, I remember Eph 6. Armor of God, fine. I'll get around to it after I figure out what the kids are fighting over, and dinner, and laundry...

     

  • At 8/21/2006 09:40:00 AM, Blogger Lydia

    Yeah, God, I remember Eph 6. Armor of God, fine. I'll get around to it

    Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has these sorts of conversations with God. ;)

     

  • At 8/21/2006 07:30:00 PM, Blogger Sarcastic Lutheran

    I'm with ya sisters, I'm in seminary and developing an emerging church plant for my synod (I'm Lutheran) here in Denver. I saw an emerging church blog roll, 200 blogs, 8 were from women...fu**ed up if you ask me. I know I'm bloggen' large and you ladies are too, so keep it up gals!

     

  • At 8/21/2006 07:32:00 PM, Blogger Sarcastic Lutheran

    OOps, my blogger info is messed up for some reason. Here's my blog: www.sarcasticlutheran.typepad.com

     
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