Feb 15, 10:10 pm: It's all about role models

But, of course, Mary Hodder at napsterization says it so much better in Re: Women and Conferences. She writes:


Last night I went to a tempura party, and there was a Phd in neuroscience from UCB there, and I asked what she was doing when she’s done at the end of the semester. She replied that she would teach because having a lab is out of the question. She didn’t want to play the games the boys play to raise all the money and compete in those ways to lead her own lab. %$#@^$%&

This is what I hear from women who would like to start a software company, about VCs. It’s too much to play those kinds of games without some mentorship and help, and we need to make it easier. I don’t think it’s that women don’t want to compete, they just want the competition to be about something, not just an arbitrary game to weed out the people with no patience for that game.

I know there are many issues, but speaking is one piece of this puzzle.


When I watched the State of Union speech this year, I found myself crying and not, surprisingly, in frustration. I found myself tearing up because the image is different now. Still two men but behind them, in a seat of power, is woman. And my daughter’s life is going to be different because she’s got that picture in her head now.

It can’t just be about that public life though. It’s got to be about the day-to-day effort that people make to get their voices hear — in their blogs, on their podcasts, on the political stage. I’m not saying anything new here, I know. I think what I am trying to say is: This is still important.

Which is my answer to why web 2.0 is important — it’s about speaking and listening to a diversity of voices.

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Marnie Webb  |