The Femme Fatales of Digital

The Women giving a largely 'Suit-and-Tie'-run industry a run for its money:

Without a doubt, the Internet has produced a veritable troop of digital Titans. The Steve Jobs, the Seth Godins and the Jimmy Wales of the world are considered by many as some of the highest authorities online. These men are just a few of an ever-growing digital brains trust.

But, how many women can you think of that fall into the same category?  The fact is, there aren’t nearly as many. 

As an industry, ‘digital’ has leant itself to being something that men do. Historically, men have always been more scientific and women more creative. On some level, ‘digital’ may have inherited this glass ceiling from the science and technology industries.

How many women major in computer science? Or started coding at an early age? Or are inherently fascinated by the workings of a ‘motherboard’? Frankly, if it’s not blogging or online shopping, do women stand a chance in this industry at all?

However, as much as the Internet has the capacity to empower certain individuals to great heights, it also has a curious way of distributing power to everyone else.

There are countless examples of content-sharing platforms that have afforded a voice to millions of people across the world. Therein also lays the potential of creating content that people can find value in.

Everyone has the potential to manipulate the resources the Internet puts at their disposal to achieve something incredible, though only the truly dedicated and driven people will make it happen. 

It didn’t necessarily require advanced I.T. knowledge to build these digital Romes but it did require an idea and a determined mind to see it through.

So who are some of the women who’ve made it big as a result of the Internet?

Caterina Fake, co-founded photo-sharing site Flickr and search decision-making system Hunch. Similarly, Ory Okolloh, co-founded social activism crowdsourcing platform Ushahidi, which has helped communities across the world to assist themselves in times of national emergency. Natalie Messenet, was the brain behind luxury fashion phenomenon Net-a-Porter, which turned over £37 million in the year when the recession was at its peak. 

In Forbes' list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, only Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, owed her success directly to the internet. While many hail from offline businesses or political backgrounds, interestingly enough, a lot of these women are from industries where women have been able to succeed very well – the arts.

Moreover, while almost all of them were already influential offline, it’s been the Internet that has undoubtedly made superstars of them. Lady Gaga owes a lot of her fame to the 100s of millions of views of her songs on Youtube and to the millions of Little Monsters who follow her every word on Twitter.

Similarly, brands like Michelle Obama, Rihanna and Kate Moss etc. can attribute large shares of their own equity to the advert value to the reams of online content generated about them.

While their day jobs afford the most famous artists and personalities, a great deal of influence, most of their clout is underscored by how much they are featured online. 

The Internet has become so relevant for these industries that those who have made it big would probably struggle to maintain that level of influence if people stopped talking about them online.

So there is a community of women who have succeeded to the likes of Steve Jobs and Seth Godin but I’m sure there are 1000s of examples of more ‘micro-influencers’ who are just as revered within their own networks for their unique achievements within the digital space.

From Hurricane Vanessa to Shaun Oakes to Indieberries, sure, they may not be reaching millions of people at a time but they are having a noticeable impact on specific communities. I’m sure you can think of many more in your own environment.

While there are increasingly more influential women within the digital space, there is still room for a lot more.  Rest assured, to become one such mistress of digital, you don’t necessarily need advanced programming skills or even to know how to build a website even – you need an idea – one that solves a market’s needs and you need the right mind to see it through.

The Internet is only 20 years old, I’m positive much more will be said for women within digital in the next twenty. Whether by creating more Titans (men or women) or vast numbers of influencers on a much smaller scale, the Internet may yet become an aggregator of aptitude and undermine gender stereotyping for good.