Some of the most "powerful blogger ladies" I know!

“Mom Bloggers Voices and Votes Influence State of Union” is the title of a new study about the impact women online have on politics and social issues.   The graphics proclaim “Mom bloggers vote!” “Mom bloggers care!” Mom bloggers are “motivated!”

To that I say, ya’ think?

Now, I’m not a pollster and I didn’t conduct any statistical analyses when I wrote Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America.  But when I was looking for essays to include in the book, it didn’t take me long to find a whole lot of women writing online about the issues they care about, so it seems to me that most of the revelations of this new study have been pretty evident to anyone who’s been paying attention.

That’s the sad, and short-sighted, part, though — certain large segments of the world, either don’t pay attention to what many of us are talking about or what our views and concerns are because of two words — “mom” and “blogger.”

Like it or not, we’re still a society that gives short shrift to what mothers think, say and do.  No matter what we did before we had kids, there are still plenty of people who firmly believe all that goes flying out of our pretty little heads when we enter the world of motherhood.  One blogger of note who happens to be a mom recently told me that as she was participating in a significant social good project, it became clear that some of the men involved thought the participating women — who happened to be “mom bloggers” –  would be all flighty and silly and that the menfolk would have to explain things to them several times before they understood what was going on.  As the project unfolded, she told me that it came as a shock to those men that these women weren’t from the world of the The Real Housewives franchise, but were smart, savvy and well-informed.

Quelle suprise!

Women are the majority online users for the majority of online platforms.  We’re techy, we’re wonky, we’re business-y, and we’re crafty.  But you’d never know it as the people who are used to running things and being in charge have turned a blind eye to the rising influence of women online.  Another example is the recent announcement of a conference that focuses on creating some of those techy-, business-y things online.  All the speakers are men.  Nary a hint of estrogen in this line up.

Despite the amount of influence women online possess, there’s still a huge disconnect between women’s actions and recognition of their true impact.  But at least we’ve got one new study out there that will hopefully convince a few more people that women who are moms and bloggers are about a whole lot more than the sum of their parenting experiences.

So what do you think we should do with all this gravitas?

Joanne Bamberger writes the blog PunditMom, and is the author of Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America (on sale now at Amazon!), a bipartisan look at how women online are changing the world.

Image via Joanne Bamberger