Annica Tiger has written two interesting posts (with good comment streams) on women bloggers in Sweden, asking in particular why so few are represented on Bloggforum‘s panelsOm du tänker komma till Bloggforum Stockholm 2004, glöm inte att registrera dig. Och förlåt, men jag hinner inte än om att skriva om viktiga saker på svenska. Nja, jag skulle kunna göra det, men du skulle inte vilja läsa det. Ger mig ett år till.. If roughly 50% of bloggers are women, why are only two out of 15 participants women? Shouldn’t a representative sample of Swedish bloggers have a roughly equal number of men and women?

It should. But Bloggforum is not a representative sample of Swedish bloggers. To explain how this came about, maybe it’s best to ask “Why have Bloggforum at all?” The forum (I think) shouldn’t try to replicate in the flesh what blogging does best digitally — and blogging can adeptly cover a great many issues, for example the very one we’re discussing now. The whole blogging medium is geared towards conversation, so why “blog unplugged” in a forum setting?

Because blogs are somewhat of a closed system in a society that is not yet fully aware of them. Because the conversation about blogging should include those who don’t blog. Because many professions are poised to be affected by the rise of personal publishing, and professionals who are already blogging are the best positioned to help with the transition.

Bloggforum participants, then, reflect the rise of “pro-blogging” in Sweden. In the US, pro blogs include such notables as Gawker, Wonkette, Gothamist, Talking Points Memo, Andrew Sullivan, Instapundit, Daily Kos, Crooked Timber, The Volokh Conspiracy, Matthew Yglesias, Juan Cole and James Lileks. One thing they have in common is that they are read by non-bloggers much more widely than other blogs. The other thing they have in common is that they are predominantly authored by men.

Well, at least many genres of pro blog are. Political opinion bloggers are almost to a man, er, male, with the notable exceptions of Virginia Postrel and Ana Marie Cox on either extreme of the seriousness spectrum. (In contrast, the sexes are more balanced on US newspaper opinion pages). Blogger-professionals, like lawyers and journalists, also tend to be male (while again, the sexes are more balanced in the profession at large). Satire and personality-cult blogs, however, seem to be a female bastion (Wonkette again, Eurotrash, Maccers, Belle de Jour), while community blogs like Gothamist are pretty evenly split.

The Swedish blogosphere has now entered its pro-blogging phase, but not uniformly on all fronts. It is the political and media blogs which are leading the charge, and — as in the US — these are predominantly authored by men. It is this kind of blogging that the current Bloggforum focuses on, not because it is inherently more interesting than the more personal strain of blogging (and certainly not because it is dominated by men), but because it is, right now, more relevant to the debate about whether blogging can change the political and media landscape in Sweden. These are the questions most likely to perk the ears of mainstream media, and hence most likely to raise the profile of blogging, which leads to more readers for all.

In the meantime, I can’t wait for a Stockholm city events blog, or one that dredges the gossip rags and solicits celeb sightings from readers. Or how about a Stockholm restaurant review blog, by an anonymous foodie with an appetite, an expense account and a snarky palate? A Swedish culture blog? — someone should release into the wild interns with attitude to sniff out the good from the bad from the ugly among Stockholm’s gallery and concert offerings. There is already one pioneer, of course: Anna’s still unique fashion/shopping blog. Whoever authors these future blogs — men or women — should be on future Bloggfora.

For what it’s worth, I have a few theories as to why political and media blogs in particular are predominantly male, even while both sexes populate the field:

1) I am biased, and I don’t know it, so I just think there are more men than women authoring these kinds of blogs.

2) Political blogging is by nature an aggressive, competitive sport, prone to combative stances, and men tend to like this environment more than women.

3) Media blogging is by nature all about professional self-promotion, and men are shameless.

4) Women, being mature, don’t depend on ego-affirming site statistics for a sense of self-worth.

I’d love to hear why I am completely off the mark in this post. I’m not all that sure about what I’ve just written.