Wow!

The comments generated by yesterday’s blog post certainly had us on the edge of our seats and doing some serious introspection.

Firstly, some quick responses…

The category thing: We did add some categories after initial feedback and I’ve also added a new field today – ‘Create an award category’. Of course, we can’t have an endless supply of award categories but, this being our first year, we are largely being guided by participant feedback and what our statistics say (eg. what works and what doesn’t).

The age thing: Perhaps women entrepreneurs do run to a different clock (the ‘broken pathways’ debate). I just gotta say that we LOOOOVED Sonja’s idea of resetting age. But, ultimately, Leela’s point reflects our position. We created 30under30 because young entrepreneurs were lacking in entries and finalists for the Cool Company Awards. We wanted to create a platform to recognise the ‘up and coming’ talent. There are plenty of awards for entrepreneurs but few for young entrepreneurs.

James’ secret agenda: No agenda to meet more women here (I think Gulliver has been on too many travels). Our agenda was simply to generate more nominations from women. And it worked! Women now represent almost 30% of nominations. That’s a big jump from 3%. So, we’re very pleased. Also… by the way… I’m not under 30 (despite what the press releases might say).

Can someone tell me where to get one of those ‘age resetter’ devices from Sonja?

Finally…

Women as contributors: After all that… The following cheeky letter to the editor at BRW (below) titled ‘The X-Chromosome Factor’ had me take a quick measure of the male to female ratio of content in Anthill.

After reading this, I grabbed a nearby copy of BRW (February 7-13, 2008) and, after a cursory flick, found 51 opinions or stories featuring blokes and only two about women. That’s a gender ratio of 51:2… Ouch! The other business magazines on my desk didn’t do much better (and let me assure you, there are many business magazines on my desk). The exception, of course, was Vive.

So, how did Anthill Magazine rate?

We came up 15:6 in favour of the patriarchy.

Hmmm.

So, here’s my plan.

Firstly… please continue to nominate women for 30under30. Secondly… I have created a Forum thread, calling for readers to promote themselves and other female entrepreneurs. Thirdly… if you have an idea for an opinion piece, please read our Editorial style and contributor guidelines.

However, because I suspect that Leela and Phillipa’s comments are spot on (women are too busy RUNNING their business to have time for self-promotion), I suggest that you pitch the idea for the opinion piece before the editorial.

In fact, why not do it now as a comment below?

What’s an angle or story that you would like to contribute to Anthill?