Poor women who may want to attend BlogHer 06 - Lisa Stone responds
Lisa Stone has recently responded in the comments section to my enquiry about how the organizers of BlogHer would ensure that economically disadvantaged women could attend BlogHer 2006. I don't want her answer to be buried, so this post is a pointer to her remarks, and a further response on my part.
In my original post, I was musing over last year's attendance fee and how the cost seemed great to me at the time:
My budget has improved a bit since then, but I wonder how/if BlogHer will ensure women who are poor, but blog and are interested, are able to attend?Please see Lisa's (excellent) response, in which she details the steps taken at last year's BlogHer event.
At the end of her remarks, she neatly turns my own question back at me:
That said, I'll take issue with only one thorn-y word in your question, Sour Duck: "ensure." I know only one thing for certain: BlogHer will never be able to "ensure" that all or even most "women who are poor, but blog and are interested, are able to attend."Well, I don't have the benefit of having organized the first Blogher conference, but off the top of my head I'd say there are three main areas of difficulty:
What we can do, with your able help and that of other committed BlogHers, is to create multiple opportunities for women attendees to help other women access this opportunity. I'd love to hear any additional brainstorms you have on this topic.
1) Finding: Identifying economically disadvantaged bloggers.
Because there is such a strong stigma to being poor, many bloggers may not mention their economic status on their blogs.
Additionally, poverty tends to make one put blogging on the back burner (if it's on any burner at all).
2) Getting the word out: Communicating the BlogHer event to these bloggers.
3) Creating a welcoming spirit: Ensuring that there is at least one platform for "poor bloggers" (such as the "Room of Your Own" strategy used at Blogher 05, which Lisa refers to in her remarks).
I encourage readers to leave their ideas, feedback, and suggestions for Lisa's and Elisa's (and Jory Des Jardins') viewing in the Sour Duck comments section, or write them at your own blog (leaving a pointer in the comments here, please).
Further complications
Language
If I had to throw in a fourth point, it would be how to speak of, and to, poor bloggers sensitively; how to avoid disrespectful/condescending language when referring to "poor bloggers"?
I myself am uncomfortable with terms like "lower class", due to the physical hierarchy it suggests. And yet "economically disadvantaged" strikes me as detached and clinical government-speak (and smacks of distaste for "those people", but perhaps I'm lending the phrase connotations which are absent for other people).
I don't know how to refer to those not in the middle-class other than "poor bloggers". Is this offensive? By "poor", I mean in a situation where saving money is unachievable: living from paycheck to paycheck. (But, then—don't a lot of middle-class people do this? I'm not sure my idea of "poor" is a good yardstick.)
Again, feedback on language (as well as the above) is appreciated.
[Thanks also to Elisa Camahort for responding, albeit in a less detailed manner than I'd hoped for.;)]
Update: Muse and Fury has written an excellent response that helps begin to educate me, and hopefully others: "Blogging from the poorhouse—Blogher 2006".
3 comments:
first some thoughts about language from a blogger in poverty. Considering that poverty affects women and children more than it does men, I think it's valid to assume (as much as assumptions are valid) that the proportions of women bloggers who are poor or struggling is larger than that of male bloggers. So coming straight out and asking us is a good start.
As far as Lisa's inability to ensure that women bloggers in poverty be able to attend Blogher, she may lack the ability but she should make it a priority. The necessity of having the voices of women in poverty, who do make up a majority of the world's population, even if not the majority of bloggers, is vital to keeping our feminist spirit alive.
But don't include the voices of women in poverty if it's only to have us become a specialized class, with our own platform. That's simply including us only to marginalize us.
As far as the problem of identifying women bloggers who are poor, I think you'll find that there are a number of women bloggers out there who specifically address their own poverty. I don't think the stigma is poverty, per se. Probably a welfare stigma, but that's no surprise given this country's hatred for welfare.
I doubt that anybody would be offended if a scholarship or sliding scale system were available for bloggers who can't afford the entire fee. Just make that information widely available in every mention of BlogHer, if such a policy were instituted, and there will be plenty of women who will take advantage of it.
Ditto everything kactus said about scholarships and sliding scales.
Another thing to consider is the cost of childcare for a day long event. Having good childcare on site goes a long way towards making things accessable to more women. A dollar added to all registrations would pay for it.
The fewer people who pay into the BlogHer coffers, the smaller the BlogHer budget is. Obviously it's possible to put BlogHer on with minimal budget -- just look at what got accomplished in the startup year -- but it's a burden and makes for more stress, tradeoffs, scrounging for funding, and hard choices.
The more that BlogHer scholarships are utilized, the bigger the burden on the BlogHer organization. Staff time is needed to vet scholarship applications, manage donations, match up donors with recipients, and keep everybody informed of their status. Since the BlogHer time & budget are not unlimited, all this work comes at a cost of other stuff that doesn't get to happen.
Not to mention that the higher you hike the fees in order to help fund things like scholarships, sliding scale fees for low-income women, on-site childcare during the event ($1 per person wouldn't even come close to paying for it), etc, the more people are going to be priced out of being able to attend.
I'm not suggesting that BlogHer should not offer scholarships, sliding scale admissions, and lots of voluteer opportunitites for people to help earn their way into the convention, of course. But there's a LOT of things that are priorities when you're trying to organize a successful conference for several hundred people. This is only one of them.
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