004: Sexism Rage

Why are women not as prominent in New Media industries as men?

I'll take this time to write about something not quite related to graphics again, but more so gender, as well as linking to a few good reads for those who crave knowledge like I do. Now, this debate has been going on for generations. Heck, you don't even have to use New Media in this case - this debate has been going on forever.

Allow me to turn your attention to this article about the lack of women at the top of Web 2.0 companies on All Things Digital. It's a fairly interesting read, if not something we've all read before. Did this headline catch my attention because I am a woman? Absolutely. Now, I'm not entirely sure if I want to get involved in the social-networking side of new media in the future, nor the programming side - I mean I've taken one class for the only New Media course in my city and targeted school, which had Flash programming, and I can safely say that is not what I want to do - but the point is this is something relevant to my interests, both as a person and as somebody whose career falls into a niche in New Media.

Now there was one thing that brought my attention back to that article, and it was when I was browsing around Wikipedia (because, you know, Wikipedia is just so reliable, or so according to CNET). I was Googling Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend - no, this is not creepy at all when there was a movie just recently released about this and might I say it was a very good, thought-provoking movie - and landed on Zuckerberg's profile. There was a sister listed on that page. I clicked there.

Found on Brian Solis' flickr
www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us.

Randi Jayne Zuckerberg^[4] (born 1982) is the marketing director of Facebook, and sister of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.   

...wait, hang on, I thought that article from earlier just said that...

...the Facebook board is all men, all the time, composed of CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, prominent techie and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, investor Peter Thiel, Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer and Washington Post head Don Graham.

The last time I checked marketing directors were part of that board, and Randi, who is not only Zuckerberg's sister, is a woman. 

For goodness' sake, this is the 21st century. We are overcoming enough stigma as it is, so is this merely over-exaggerating in favour of the article and its message towards women? Granted, yes, I don't see enough women discovering the more well-known, mainstream companies, but they exist and they have still accomplished just as much financially, famously, and perhaps even mentally. 

Arguably, is sexuality and physical different still a reason why this gender issue has not been settled? Harassment lawsuits and women getting fired for being "distracting" apparently still happens? iJustine, a female graphic designer and technology buff and reviewer, who has dominated in the niche of Youtube partnership and video, falls under criticism for this all the time - I mean, just look at some of the comments on her videos. A good handful of them (usually straight males) are not there for what she has to say or review. I myself am quite sure she could very well be a model and still live with the same income she earns from making videos on Youtube, but there are many women who could do that, simply because it's easier based on their gender dominance in that industry. 

Found on newsrealblog.com

Yes, women and men are biologically different. Yes, some of them are geared towards certain things more than others as studies have shown, whether this is something they cannot control like puberty or something they can control like, oh I don't know, their career path. Once again, though, this is a new age, this is new media, and no matter what your gender is, this age has majorly accepted that it is the skills and the success of a human regardless of gender that matter. It's anybody's game, and you just have to play it right.

(On another note, I will be setting up a schedule now for when my blog posts appear, which has tentatively been placed at Tuesdays and Thursdays as must-post days. Yay for content!)