Steemit is a Sausage Fest!
One of the most common complaints that you'll hear about the Steemit network is the reward pool, or more specifically, how the reward pool is allocated. Most Steemit newcomers, and even hardened veterans, are perplexed at how amazingly intelligent contributions receive five cents, while spam and plagiarized content receive hundreds of dollars.
While that is a major problem that will need to be addressed before Steemit moves out of beta, it may actually not be the biggest challenge in terms of the blockchain platform's future growth potential.
Much talk was made about how Steemit will upend "traditional" social media. I myself went out on a limb by discussing the possibility of Steemit becoming a Facebook killer on two separate articles via the mainstream media. But it's going to be difficult to match Facebook, or any other social media network, if we don't bring in the ladies!
That's right, folks! According to Alexa.com, Steemit heavily skews male by an absurd amount, and that is absolutely not helpful. Rather than being an open, decentralized platform, it's quite obvious that Steemit is not producing content that attracts or encourages women. Perhaps in some cases, it's intimidating women.
I'm not suggesting that we turn the Steem network into a permanent baby shower. What I am saying is that Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms have far more balanced gender representation, which opens them up to the entire other half of the social equation.
An internal digital economy like Steemit cannot survive unless it attracts and integrates women.
I would say the percentage of females that are comfortable with crypto are almost the same percentage of females that are on Steemit...
It's going to take a Few More Good Women and a Few More Years!
From what I've experienced on STEEMIT so far, the ratio of females to males seems quite reasonable, and almost surprisingly balanced to me (granted, still more males, but not excessively so). Not to mention, the platform seems to attract many more "quality" females than other social media platforms.
Perhaps that's partly because it takes a certain type of personality to be curious and forward-thinking enough to be a relatively "early-adopter" in the crypto-space (male or female) in the first place. You'll find a lot more people on STEEMIT, men and women alike, much more likely to post up some great insightful content, as opposed to little more than their latest "hot" selfie!
Here are some additional posts for reference:
Link: A Question Over Coffee--What is the Ratio of Men to Women on steemit?
Link: STEEM - A Crypto Currency That ACTUALLY Has Female Users!
Personal observations are extremely subjective, and are mostly used as secondary and tertiary sources to support the primary argument (which should be fact-based). The usual exception is when the point is about personal observation or personal "editorialism."
As for the links, the first reference's thesis is that Steemian women outnumber men. The second link is an example of faulty, logical deduction. Based on internet statistics that were complied in 2006 -- 2006, ten YEARS before Steemit launched!! -- the author claims that because women use the internet as much as men, 50% of Steemit users are female.
Traffic statistics pulled from Alexa.com proves this statement is completely false -- as I wrote in my original post, Steemit sharply skews male. Furthermore, the aforementioned author claims that prior to Steemit's launch, "basically the entire crypto currency ecosystem was a bunch of 16-60 year old male neckbeards sitting around gambling, watching porn and selling drugs."
I'd really like to know where he got his data to make such claims. I personally believe that it stems from the mass integration of "delusions of grandeur." Because he observed something from his perspective, he deduced that his observations are the norm for the entire system in question.
Again, personal observations are extremely subjective. I need to see hard data (such as the data provided by Alexa.com) for me to reconsider the fact that Steemit skews male.
you're absolutely right @bullishmoney, I meant to add that it's still mostly "anecdotal" data, and apologize for leaving out that point. I can say that I have heard this from quite a few others, and it has been my experience as well. It's tricky to get hard evidence on this, and I'm sure you know how easy it is to manipulate even hard statistics to "prove a point" as well. It's kind of like trading, you can run all the studies and stats and backtests you want, but at the end of the day, I have yet to be able to match results obtained from outright observation and understanding of what's really going on.
Perhaps an in-depth analysis of active male versus female accounts above a certain reputation may provide more concrete insight into what quite a few of us seem to observe in various degrees.
Another interesting idea may be to analyze, say, the top few thousand recently active STEEMIT accounts over 6 months old that have at least 1 to 4 times the number of followers versus follows (to weed out those who follow everyone), and try to determine which accounts they follow are male versus female (also attempting to weed out bot accounts, of course). Unfortunately, that maybe the trickiest part, because there really is no way of automating that process that I'm aware of, since STEEMIT doesn't track accounts as male/female/bot (as far as I am aware, at least).
I can tell you though, given you mentioned "hard data" from alexa.com, my past experience is that a good portion of alexa data tends to be highly questionable as well, not to mention possibly gamed in various ways. And even if it were relatively accurate, there's really no way they could reliably assess the level of activity of the various genders on STEEMIT, or anywhere else for that matter. For reference, I offer you these links:
Link: How Accurate are Alexa, Compete, DoubleClick and Google Trends?
Link: How Does Alexa Track Traffic – Do They Really Have a Grasp of Your Traffic?
Perhaps the word "balanced" that I used wasn't quite right either. It may be more accurate to say that the ratio appears to be "constantly improving". I'd also like to add (anecdotally, of course), that when I often come across posts such as this, it really does make you think STEEMIT is onto something here...
Link: CryptoGranny says hello & thank you for your kind welcome!
Regardless, I'll definitely keep an eye out if I do come across more concrete data that can help provide a more complete picture.
I certainly hope that the ratio is improving for the better -- obviously, by engaging more women, you are utilizing essentially half of the human population. And I'm all for it because at the end of the day, without women, Steemit will get nowhere.
Alexa data may not be completely accurate, but it's useful for apples-to-apples comparisons. For example, Alexa demonstrates that Facebook has roughly a 50/50 gender mix, as do other social media platforms. One interesting point is that Infowars.com, the popular conspiracy website, skews heavily female. I didn't expect that, but it makes sense given women's penchant for juicy rumors and interesting stories.
As far as the available evidence is concerned, Steemit skews male, perhaps due to the fact that cryptos are generally male centric. That's an area that I believe is seeing improvement, to your point. I personally believe, though, that the rate needs to change dramatically because it's damn difficult to grow a social media network like Steemit by only attracting half the consumer base.
But I'm optimistic, so we'll see what happens!
Yep, I agree with you. As for me, I am interested in the fiction section and astronomy....unfortunately, content for such sections are almost absent (has nothing to do with fiction) or just wiki spam ...
Yep. Spam is a problem, and so it the atmosphere. A lot of the belief among steemians is that women need sections on hair and makeup and child-rearing, because that is what a 'trad' woman should have. You have just proved my assertion that women are interested in intelligent things, i.e. astronomy. For steemit to catch more women, the people here need to realize that women want intelligent discussions and articles on non-'traditional woman' subjects. To have that, Steemit needs to attract more open-minded individuals - and I am not talking pseudo-intellectuals.
Woman are some of the hardest people to convience to try something new trust me i try everyday but they never listen i see many woman on steemit actually i honestly dont think this is a blame that can be placed on the user woman interact with what they are attracted to maybe woman aren't attracted to steemit. HP
It's very opposite for me, but I'm sure I'm considered strange by most "standards". I am constantly searching for new ways to learn, new things to do, etc. I've tried for months now to get my hubby on steemit and just recently took his phone, and signed up for him. lol. I find it extremely difficult to talk other women into joining and staying on steemit, as it seems the entertaining aspect is not as fun as other social platforms. or they see crypto-anything as boring. I think it's fascinating. Especially when people aren't willing to come together start something new, learn, make some money here and there. I think the major issue too is that most people are looking for instant gratification instead of having to do the work and put in the time required for a different type of platform. It's sad really. They're only limiting themselves.
I say bring on the ladies!
Thanks for giving useful info on gender representation. I would like to add here that steemit has around 200k users and it is more or less useless to compare the specific categorised numbers with facebook twitter or similr. Problem you mentioned is really relevant but from my point of view it is not the content that steemit offers or promotes that is not attracting females into it for me it is just related to the fact that field is so small , wide marketing is still not established so most of users on steemit are people from cryptocurrency world, blokchain, trading etc. There we come to the main thing why woman are not so represanted and it is because field I mention is scheewed toward male population. Once steem becomes more mainstream i doubt it will have equal representation problems as i strongly believe any individual can find what they want here. Thanks for the post sir!
We need more ladies here... I winder why they are less women here. On FB, they usually just post up selfies and I don't think it will cut it on here (yet) LOL
My wife is doing her part to help attract the ladies. Shes doing articles on crochet and vintage Barbie dolls. Do you think we can get the tag #crochetbarbiedoll to trend here in 6 months? Here's hoping!
I'm trying to recruit new ladies to bring with me. 😂
:)
It's hard to convience woman but I do praise you for doing your part to recruit other woman.
My dear there are women here, AND they are reading, writing, upvoting posts on all sorts of topics, including war history. I have also seen men reading, commenting, and upvoting posts that you might think only women would be interested in, and which would normally be relegated to the 'woman' section. The problem, as I see it, is that Steemit is heavily populated by conservative, right-leaning men and women, who shoot down and are hostile to the more open minded women that do come here. Why do I refuse to join minnowsupport group? Look who founded it. Are women who are not conservative, far-right going to get the support that they need in order to florish when the biggest support group is 'traditional' woman? No. I don't think that this is a case of needing more people posting about flower arranging - heck, if you want that, I could do it; I was trained as a florist and grew up with a bonsai-tree crazy father. What you want is an environment that is more accepting of women who don't want to be seen as belonging in the kitchen when they are not chefs.