Pan back a bit and you could say at the macro level, 1950s advertising was a male-oriented bragging medium while 2010s social media is a female-intuitive conversation, nurturing and listening medium. This could mean that acquisition (hunting) was more important in a capitalist society that had just begun producing massive amounts of consumers goods after World War II (hey, what’s that — a TV set!), and now socializing (gathering) is more important in a mature society where most U.S. consumers already own three televisions.

What I take away (to sound totally sexist) is the innate communication skills of women are a better fit for today’s world than those of men.

If so, the ad industry — still dominated by men — and the tech industry — ditto — had better start hiring more diverse managers and giving them leadership opportunities. We’re out of sync with society.

Can you tell I wrote this after spending an entire day traveling from the East coast, stuck in the middle seat between two 4 yos who are, frankly, quite demanding? Without drinking?

Seriously, I not only wanted to make fun of my frankness, but also make sure you realized that I think you wrote a great post – and are totally spot-on with your assessments.

Frankly your friend,

Shelly

And, while I agree with you that some women could step up and do more to promote themselves, I want to make sure that you know that my post was not at all lamenting that we aren’t equal or looking for sympathy in any way.

Frankly, I feel equal to (or just as capable as) just about any one any where, male or female – and know that many of the women that I mentioned (and some that I didn’t, yourself included) do as well. My post wasn’t a pity party or intended to come off as a complaint in any way. It was simply an observation. Women are wired to excel in the realm of social media, just as they are wired to excel in the fields of marketing and PR and, even though that field seems to be dominated by men right now, I don’t think it will be that way for long.

And frankly, it doesn’t bother me a bit that men are currently engaged in the process of boasting and preening – frankly, I’m too busy taking care of the myriad of clients that want to hire me to feel at all threatened by that. And I’ll take paying clients (and happy ones) all day long over the glory of being center stage. Take that, preeners.

Seriously, you have written a great post and I do think it will become the norm to see more and more women headlining conferences. Event planners who don’t look far enough to find those resources are doing themselves and their conference attendees a disservice in that regard. I also think that it wouldn’t hurt for women to be a little more “out there” in terms of selling themselves and their abilities – but I am still confident and adamant to all who read either your post or mine – or both – that women aren’t looking for a pity party. We collectively know how capable we are – and I, for one, don’t have any problem resting on those laurels.

Thanks for the great analysis and delving deeper into the issue – you’re fantastico