Valley Girl: Women Are Doing Just Fine in Tech, Thanks for Asking Though!

Here's my latest Valley Girl column, which is the fourth most read on the site today much to my delight! It's always a surprise to me which columns resonate and which don't. Anyway, check it out here.

(OK, I admit "Don't Cry for Us" is better than my original title "What's Up, Bitches?")

It's interesting because at breakfast today in Omaha one of the guys was asking about how to get more women involved in the entrepreneur scene and I didn't have any Valley learnings to pass on because we clearly haven't cracked it either. That lead to a discussion of whether you can have it all and balance family and building a company. I know it's controversial, but I don't think you can, which is a big reason I don't have kids. (Mom and dad if it makes you feel better you can add "yet" to the end of that sentence.) I am in awe of women like Tina Sharkey who can somehow do it.

A few other factoids as I've been thinking about this issue.

Read, Write, Web wrote about this Rapleaf data showing how women outnumber men on social networks. That's an important datapoint for women starting companies now. Another one: Advertising on women's magazines recently dipped for the first time. Women's magazines have long been thought to be a safe-haven for print. People have argued glossy magazines don't translate online. I think they can and since authenticity is everything in the new Web I can't wait to see what smart women-- encouraged by some of the role models in my piece-- start to come up with.

To that point, I'm embedding the second video I did with Julia Allison when she was in the Valley last week. It focuses on Nonsociety, which is a very glossy-women's-mag take on life casting, I think. I'm curious to see if they can tap into a hidden, neglected female demographic, the way Digg did with dudes. Separately, lest we feel we've made too much progress as a gender, Julia reposted this email on her blog today. Frankly, I love that she didn't redact his email address

From: enriquerugby@yahoo.com
Date: August 1, 2008 12:09:45 AM EDT
To: julia@nonsociety.com
Subject: Hit the treadmill!

Dear Julia,

Been watching your photos and videos lately, and looks like you need to take a few pounds off that beautiful body of yours. You have been terribly busy and all, but remember that “mens sana in corpore sano”. So get that gorgeous frame of yours back in shape!

An admirer

Wow. With admirers like that, who needs critics? If Julia Allison is fat, (ahem) I don't know what that makes me. I would say more to Enrique, but this is a family blog.

Now the video: