The Political Voices of Women

This is from the “Part Two” of Women, Politics, and the Internet, by Katharine Seelye. Part One of this article was actually the catalyst for my decision to make a list of women who blog on politics, and now that list is well over 200, and has become the inspiration for this blog.

We received a lot of great feedback on the last column in which we discussed whether more men were involved in politics online than women. Many readers agreed that men were more visible, at least on the mainstream political blogs. But they also pointed out that women are fully engaged in politics online, just in a different space. (Many women bloggers and sites are mentioned in the column’s reader comments section; check them out here.

What we want to do this week is explore how the presidential campaigns are trying to reach these online women. This is important because more women than men vote (54 percent women in 2004, compared with 46 percent men, according to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, or about 8 million more women). This time, with a woman in the race, all the candidates are more gender-conscious than ever.

Web sites depend on people coming to them, obviously. What are the campaigns doing to capture the women who are online but aren’t visiting campaign sites and don’t participate in the mainstream blogs?

. . .

On the Democratic side, one of the more interesting developments is a new site called momocrats.com , which supports John Edwards for president. It isn’t paid for or sponsored by the Edwards campaign, but it does post the campaign’s press releases and promotes all things Edwards, especially his wife, Elizabeth, who works tirelessly to reach out to women.

Momocrats was started last month by a group of mothers who are all noted bloggers in their own right and who cross-post on each other’s blogs (CityMama, TechMama, LawyerMama, PunditMom and the Silicon Valley Moms Blog), which are generally about daily life with a dose of politics.

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