Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Who has the Women?
“Real” indpendent bloggers of the female variety are conspicuoulsy absent from the new TechMeme crowned “leadership.” Is online networking leadership also a male bonding thing, be it of the social or business kind?
Or, are women “addicted” to Facebook? What about LinkedIn?
While updating my LinkedIn profile over the weekend, I was taken aback to see that after posting information on my “experience,” a little executive LinkedIn MAN icon now is part of my profile, NOT a little executive LinkedIn WOMAN!
It may be a “little” thing, but it is representative of that old boys club notion of the inner executive MALE circle.
Why does LinkedIn “decorate” all of the 14 million plus professional profiles it hosts with executive mascots representing professional men, regardless of the gender of the person the profile represents? It would be simple to use a unisex icon, rather than a definitatively male one.
Or, how about applying a male or female executive icon as gender appropriate to individual profiles. Hey, LinkedIn could really take a stand against the purported executive “glass ceiling” by making its mascot icons universally FEMALE!
How many women are actually on LinkedIn? Are more women having fun poking around at Facebook then working to build their businesses at LinkedIn? After all, Facebook’s core user base is a college one, and we all know how much college women like to party!
But what about serious goings on? LinkedIn is generous with its professional demographics, but does not break out the aggregate executive profle data by gender. LinkedIn says it counts 3,414 CEOs among its members. Notoriously, company chiefs are predominantly male.
During Advertising Week, I heard Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, Mark Penn, giddily underscore that there are more women than men in the United States, noting that Hillary is looking to each and every one of them to help her achieve her rightful spot as the most powerful leader in the world.
Thanks to her husband, of course, President Bill Clinton.
ALSO: TechMeme Algorithm: The New PageRank?
PLUS READ MY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Reid Hoffman On How LinkedIn Beats Facebook for Business
AND: Social Fireworks Alert: LinkedIn vs. ‘Loud Mouth McClure’?