AGA Roll Call: We bloggers

I realised something aout blogs today: a lot of political bloggers are men. Why?

Could it be that the blogosphere is a perfect reflection of our offline gender-centered world and that women are more reluctant than men to take a stand in the public sphere and be vocal about opinions? Statistics are ambivalent about the issue, and research seems to say yes and no.

The Pew Internet & American Life project Center recently reported (pdf link) that in September 2005, 25 percent of women were reading blogs, compared to 29 percent of men (11 % of men had already created one, while only 9 % of women had). The survey also reports gender-based differences in terms of usage: men seem to consume information online more aggressively than women, their approach to consulting news can differ greatly: