Everyone is starting to talk about who has the most political bloggers- is it Plaid, lib dems etc (its certainly not Labour in Wales that's for sure, although Labour are excellent at providing plenty of anonymous comments...)
Nevertheless, my plea is for more Welsh women to blog about Welsh politics. From scanning welshblogindex.blogspot.com I can only identify seven women bloggers- Betsan Powys, Miss Wagstaff, Heledd Fychan, Leanne Wood AM, Jill Evans MEP, Valleys Mam, and me. If there are more then let me know. Perhaps some of the other bloggers with pseudonyms are women, but I don't think they are. Jane Davidson AM started a blog on her myspace page before the election but that has fallen by the wayside, and some of the other women candidates for the National Assembly stopped blogging very soon after the May result.
It would give a different angle on the blogosphere if more women decided to blog, but I think many are put off by the mainly male orientated vibe that the blogosphere exudes. The remarks which are left in some of the comment boxes of various blogs are sexist on occasions- one comment talked about the weight of female politicians in a negative way, for example. Yes, I know that you will say that we should take it with a pinch of salt- and believe me I do, otherwise I would never blog again, but there has to be a positive way in which we can attract more women to the world of the blogs. In other fields of interest, women have embraced the blogosphere (often to the detriment of their personal lives) but here in Wales the phenomenon hasn't really taken off.
Considering that there are so many female politicians at the Assembly we should encourage a campaign to get more women blogging and contributing to the debate online. Only then can we rival Glyn Davies's infamous wet t-shirt competition blog entry a while back...
8 comments:
The mind boggles at the thought of a female version of the Glyn Davies wet T shirt comment. No doubt I would disapprove of that as well.
There are two more female political bloggers I am aware of, both Welsh Liberal Democrats. There is Cardiff Councillor Francesca Montemaggi who blogs at http://paswonky.blogspot.com/ and http://grangetown.blogspot.com/ and there is Stephanie Ashley from Pembroke Dock who blogs at http://diblemming.blogspot.com/
Welsh Lobbyist is a young woman,check her profile
It seems to be a fact that Plaid bloggers are on the ascendant, and yes, let's have more women bloggers, blogging for Wales.
How about a Helen-Mary blog, or a Myfanwy Davies blog?
Here is another one for you - Steph Ashton a Lib Dem activist and blogger from Carmarthen W and S Pembs.
http://diblemming.blogspot.com/
Thank you for the comments. I think welsh blog index should add them to the blog role.
Yes Helen Mary bloggin would be interesting!
when we blog.. we do so as individuals.. not as a particular sex..
I was going to let you know about me being female but looks like Valleys Mam beat me to it, but you do raise a good point that as many voices need to be heard as possible in the welsh blogs
Talking of female blogs, congratulations on your recent runner-up award! Even though she won an award herself Miss Wagstaff admits her jelousy at the catogry you exeled in!
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