The online playground of Andrea Schwandt-Arbogast: web design, university web development, animals, books, and other slices of life.

Rant: Are CSS style galleries and awards sites good-old-boys clubs?

Published 6 Jun 2005

This post was spurred by the news that John Oxton has been added as a weekly judge for the Web Standards Awards. Congrats John! You deserve it, and this not personal.

I clicked over to the WSA to check out who the other judges were. They’ve got an impressive international list of folks. One out of 11 is female. Thanks for representing us, Maki.

I then went over to StyleGala to have a look at what designs are hot these days. I noticed, along the way, that ten out of ten news contributers are male, as well as five out of six site reviewers. Cheers, Lea, thanks for doing all the work for us girls!

CSS Beauty is run by a man, as is the CSS Vault. I guess it should really be no surprise to me that the web is seemingly so male oriented, as Malarkey puts it. At least the CSS/Web Standards community. I mean, whether a site award-worthy or gallery-worthy in this community is being determined almost exclusively by men.

This is not sour grapes, as I have never submitted any of my work to these sites and don’t presume to think that it belongs there. What I do not believe, however, is that there are not more that two women who deserve to be in the group of 29 people who are judging standards-based design.

Malarkey, I’m linking to you again because:

I’m determined to get you to answer at least one in ten of my communications to you, you ~~lazy~~ busy… ; )
As a contributer to both the WSA and StyleGala who I’m reasonably sure appreciates the design talents of women, maybe you can enlighten me as to how this came about.

Does this bother anyone else?

Update: Those of you coming from John Oxton’s site, welcome, and you can find my reaction to his post and the resulting comments here.

Filed under CSS, Web Design

Commentary

Elaine Nelson writes

Jun 7 at 11:17 AM #

Yeah, I’ve noticed that too, but been too busy to do or even write much about it!

John Oxton writes

Jun 9 at 06:00 AM #

I’m very much in touch with my feminine side. I also spent two years as a “house husband” looking after by son, does that count?

Andrea writes

Jun 9 at 06:42 AM #

John: Yes, I think with your beautiful flowers, your stint as ‘house husband’, your hummingbird (which is right up my alley), and your restriction of grey to just typography on your personal site, we could be convinced to let you be an honorary woman.

Of course, you will have to endure the hazing ritual, which includes leg waxing and spending at least 12 hours in high-heeled shoes of our choosing. Are you up for it? : )

John Oxton writes

Jun 9 at 07:19 AM #

Up for it!?? Sounds like my average weekend! ;-)

Lea writes

Jun 9 at 11:24 AM #

First of all, thanks for the cheers! I’ve mentioned in many sites before that I, too, am concerned over the lack of representation from women (and/or minorities) on the web. However, I’m not completely sure how to tackle the problem beyond heavy networking and innovative projects partly promoted by… um… men. Any other ideas?

At any rate, I got my “gig” in Stylegala by applying. David pored through 150 (or something close) entries, and at least in this round, I got through. I don’t think for one second he decided on choosing me solely because I’m female, but at the same time I wonder if there were many women that applied.

Andrea writes

Jun 9 at 03:08 PM #

Lea: You’re welcome!

I’m not sure what to do about the problem, either, and I’m sure the solution will involve men. In fact, I see that as the goal—for women and minorities to work alongside of and with the the current “gurus” and be recognized for their own merits. I have nothing against men (In fact, I can’t wait to meet John Oxton some day now—I’m bringing the shoes!), I just don’t think they can tell the whole story by themselves.

So what so we do? Well, I have found that bitching loud and often doesn’t hurt ;). Of course, we have to back up our bitching with good work, and somehow make sure that work gets seen.

John Oxton writes

Jun 10 at 12:39 PM #

Jokes aside, I feel a post coming on… could take a while to get my word right though!

Andrea writes

Jun 10 at 04:03 PM #

I look forward to hearing your perspective, John!

Johan Edlund writes

Jun 11 at 07:21 AM #

Hi Andrea, great site! I agree that WSA is a boys club; the problem is of course that most things are… I just want to add that WSA also for a long time had Carole Guevin of netdiver.net as a monthly judge. Both Carole and Maki has definitely helped shape WSA into what it is today.

I hope you can keep reminding us. You know, deep down all boys really love Kim Gordon of the Sonic Youth! :)

Andrea writes

Jun 11 at 12:48 PM #

Johan: Thanks for your comment! And thanks for linking to Carole. This post has definitely gotten more attention than I was expecting, and it’s nice to see that I didn’t offend all the WSA judges with my little rant!

You know, deep down all boys really love Kim Gordon of the Sonic Youth!

: ) What’s not to love?

Nicole Sullivan writes

Aug 24 at 09:53 AM #

Perhaps it is more a question of visibility then presence. I always hesitate to post to forums, comments, blogs, etc, even when I feel I am well informed on a given topic, because of the tendency to flame people with different opinions.

Is flaming masculine? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t do it.

Andrea writes

Aug 25 at 06:42 AM #

Nicole: Good point—it took me a log time to be willing to stick my neck out and comment publicly. In fact, it took actually meeting a couple of folks in person at SXSW before I felt comfortable commenting on their blogs. Once I started commenting and got over that first hurdle, and the second hurdle of thinking I had nothing important to say, it became much easier for me to comment anywhere.

Your comment gave me a great idea for a title of a post though—“To flame is masculine, to rant is divine.” I will have to use that sometime… ;)

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