Top 20 PR PowerWomen go Everywhere -- the W-List

German psychologists Jana Ehrhardt and Eve Ehrhardt wrote a book titled Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere. With a catchy title and a simple concept they describe how some women tend to feel the need to believe that someone else should take care of them. The authors get into the historical and cultural reasons why. For the purposes of this post, let's remember that asking permission first may not get you places.

A button given to me by leadership consulting company Corporate Hope quoted Laurel Tatcher Urlich with "Well behaved women rarely make history". I think what the title and quote say is that there is still a difference in perception that comes with being a woman. Well, there is, and it means that it comes with a different sensibility to everything. That is good.

Meet the Top 20 PR PowerWomen. Extracted from Todd And's (now in partnership with Ad Age) Power 150 list of marketing and PR blogs by Kami Huyse at Communication Overtones a couple of weeks ago, this list represents as diverse a universe as you can find in the blogosphere. The statistic Kami drew out is valid pretty much all over the place. Go to Fast Company Expert blogs where I post every Thursday and count the males and female bloggers -- 26 to 6.

I know there are more women bloggers, for the PR and marketing profession, these are the Top 20:

• What’s Next Blog B. L. Ochman
• Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg
• BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
• Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
• Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine, Elana, Laura & Lisa
• The Origin of Brands Laura Ries
• Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
  
• Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
• Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
• Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht
• The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
• CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
• Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
• Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
• advergirl Leigh Householder
• Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
• Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
• Flooring The Consumer C.B. Whittemore
• Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
• Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen

I come late to the party, others have preceded me in expressing why this is a great starting point. C.B. Whittemore, CK, Becky Carroll, and Roberta Rosenberg, also co-authors of The Age of Conversation, wrote posts for the occasion. It is indeed the age of conversation. Tom Peters and Kevin Roberts have been saying it for years better than I ever could -- women rock at conversation.

Maybe we can start a W-List to help us all discover great blogs authored by women. Adding to CK's:

• Moda di Magno by Lori Magno
• Get Shouty by Katie Chatfield

Many of you may already know a few not on the marketing list:

• Deborah Schultz by Deborah Schultz
• The Engaging Brand by Anna Farmery
• Liz Strauss at Successful Blog by Liz Strauss
• Manage to Change by Ann Michael
• Lorelle on WordPress by Lorelle VanFossen
• Inspired Business Growth by Wendy Piersall
• Back in Skinny Jeans by Stephanie Quilao
• Learned on Women by Andrea Learned
• eSoup by Sharon Sarmiento
• Management Craft by Lisa Haneberg
• Productivity Goal by Carolyn Manning

Also check out newer entrants:

• Modite by Rebecca Thorman
• Tech Kitten by Trisha Miller
• Get Fresh Minds by Katie Konrath
• Conscious Business by Anne Libby
• Narrative Assets by Karen Hegman

I have enjoyed getting to know these ladies and think their blogs would make a fine addition to RSS readers.

If I left out anyone, I'm sure you or the women I inadvertently left out of the list will be able to add to this one. Top 20 + 13 + 5 = the beginning of the W-List and more great blogs and link love. What other great blogs are out there authored by women? To link forward, simply copy all these links into your post and add yours.
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UPDATE: Krishna De at Krishna De's BizGrowth News was the first woman to pick up the list, put it in alphabetical order and add some of her links. She aptly renamed the effort The W List: aka Women Who Blog. She adds:

• Wiggly Wigglers authored by fellow Podcast Sister Heather Gorringe
• The Blog Angel aka Claire Raikes
• Wealth Strategy Secrets by Money Gym author and Founder Nicola Cairncross.

The first always deserve honorable mention. I'll be keeping track off line so feel free to link back or trackback to this post to signal your participation.

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Toby -- that get together was one of the best that I can recall. Yes, it felt like we were continuing the conversation and I think that blogs are great accelerators in that regard.

Avery -- thank you for taking the time to comment. I'm familiar with Viaspire's blog, you remind me to follow it more closely.

[Anne Libby]

Valeria, I'm humbled -- and floored -- to be included on your list of truly amazing women. Thank you so much. Wow.

("Speechless" isn't a term that can usually be used to describe me.)

Be well, and thanks and kudos for creating and leading this part of the conversation!

[Marriage-101]

I have nothing intelligent to add other than the book you mention with a catchy title is also a Meatloaf song. I just had to put that out there.

[Wendy Piersall]

Hey Valeria! :) I tried commenting with my undying gratitude the other day but got a site error. For some reason it won't let me enter my emomsathome.com email address (been having this problem elsewhere too, seems that some people don't like the "home.com" combo).

So I'm back to give you a hug of thanks!

Also, can you add Jennifer Laycock from Search Engine Guide to the list? She's amazing, and a good buddy too! ;)

[Valeria Maltoni]

Marriage-101 -- catchy title from a Meatloaf song works, thank you for stopping by.

Wendy -- fabulous job adding your list to the already growing number of outstanding blogs. And thank you for pointing Jennifer out.

[deb schultz]

Valeria - Wow - look what happens when I go "offline" for a few days. I am honored to be on this list and I will reciprocate and add more. I am way behind on blog posts.

BTW - sitting at Gnomedex - forgot how guy haeavy the conference is - so nice to catch-up on my feeds and see this list egettign developed.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Deb,

I am revising and cleaning up the list, which now counts 125 blogs authored by women -- I spent a bit of time tracking it across the 'sphere today ;-) You'll be happy to know you were added by a couple of people besides me.

[Deborah aka Happy Monkey]

The"Well behaved women rarely make history" bumper sticker on the back of my car draws lots of attention and starts lots of conversations! Thanks for this list of women bloggers. I will link to this from my blog... which is read mainly by women!

[Lewis Green]

Valeria,

I just learned of this list over at Customers Rock. As you know, I am always looking for great reads. But let me tread, lightly I hope, where most men never dare. I have a problem with women only, men only, whites only, blacks only anything. And here is specifically what I said over at Becky's"

Becky,

I am a marketer and believe the way to get noticed (and rankings) is to market your products and services, in this case blogs. But, like Roger, I am troubled when we separate people by gender or race.

The message being sent to me is that in order for women bloggers to be noticed, they must create a special class of people. And that just isn't true. In fact, I believe it is hurtful and demeaning to women, especially those who are getting noticed. It is certainly disrespectful to us male readers and demeaning of our efforts to write about women bloggers as often as we wrtie about men. I don't write about women because I think they need my help. I write about them because they said or have something important to say.

I read as many women writers as men, and women have always done as well if not better than men as novelists, poets, and free-lance writers. Why not as bloggers? Again, I urge women bloggers to market their sites; don't depend upon a gimmick. It is beneath you. Talent, not gender, should be the focus of marketing bloggers.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Lewis and all the other great guys who blog out there -- I hear you and by and large spend most of my time exchanging comments and ideas with you. Check it out, you'll know it's true.

Most of the ladies on this list I did not know with a few rare exceptions. Why? Because (and entire books are written on it) women tend to be less self promotional than men. Look at the statistics:

Power 150 -- 13% are women
Top 100 blogs on Technorati - 8% are women

I could go on. Hey, look at Drew's post. He did not even mention the list came from me. Now, I'm sure that was unintentional on his part. Would you have known many of these great blogs -- and so far I am tracking about 130 on different permutations -- had we not started this type of list?

Frankly, I would have not. They exist yet nobody is tracking them. When we shine a light on someone, we do not infer that others do not shine.

[Geoff Livingston]

Lewis:

Maybe if their were more women bloggers this would be a valid argument. If glass ceiling situations are ever going to end we need to highlight and celebrate successful women.

The Power Women's lists don't detract from their rankings in the general population, they just celebrate successful women. As such, my hat's off to these great women.

GL

[drrogera]

Geoff, I don't recall being asked my gender when I set-up my blog, in Technorati, or in most any of the other ranking sites. The only place where you could say that a glass ceiling exists here would be with those who create the rankings. Are you saying that the Power 150 is compiled by sexists? That the folks at Technorati rig the results? Is there a limit on the number of blogs women can create?

I think Valeria and the other women are now seeing that there are hundreds of blogs by women. Some are even written just for women. The issue is whether the reason for inclusion in a list should be just based on gender.

It is my understanding that fewer women participate in the Internet as a whole. If having lists such as this helps to increase their participation - then it is a good thing. If it helps to "shine light" on the fact that more women need to get involved - it is a good thing. If everyone on the list posts the list they will each get a few hundred Technorati points and maybe some SEO favor from Google (or the number of reciprocal links will flag the whole thing as a webring) - that would not be good for them as a group.

I think cross promotion is a great thing. I think Valeria, and anyone, has the right to list any blogs she wants to list. I just think that it creates a glass house not a glass ceiling.

The list for the Age of Conversation was usually not much more than names and links. No one seemed to mind that. The Z-list was friends promoting friends and no one seemed to mind.

My question was more about how poorly a converse list would be received than if this was an inappropriate thing to do.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Geoff -- "The Power Women's lists don't detract from their rankings in the general population, they just celebrate successful women." The point of my original post, before it got high jacked, was to celebrate (and get to know) other women who blog and are not in marketing.

Roger -- I draw a line. This is my blog, my house, glass or otherwise. I have deleted a sentence in your comment that I found gratuitous and offensive. This discussion is now closed right here, right now. There is an "M-List" and it was started by a woman, Rebecca Thorman. If you had not been all so busy getting on soap boxes, you would have seen past your arguments to it. But that would have meant actually visiting even some of the blogs I listed.