I’ve been reading Lynn Terry’s blog for a long time now and every now and then she brings up the issue that seems to float around on the internet.

Some people believe there’s a ‘good ol’ boys club’ of men internet marketers that appear to lock the women out and prevent them from achieving the same success.

It’s an interesting discussion and a very valid one because it really appears as though the most successful of internet marketers are men.

If that’s entirely true I don’t know. Maybe the women are out there making millions like the men, but they’re just doing it quietly.

Here’s what I know for absolute certain:

The only person responsible for my success is myself.

I truly believe I can have anything I want, if I can just get up the guts to go grab it.

As women we need to stand up for ourselves and take matters into our own hands, we can’t blame men.

It’s our responsibility. I believe women tend to not just go for it without second guessing themselves at every point along the way. We ask ourselves questions like:

  • Am I smart enough?
  • Am I good enough?
  • Am I pretty enough (for the stage)?
  • Am I thin enough?
  • Do I know enough?

And I’m not just talking about ‘other people’ here. I’ve asked myself these questions and struggle with getting up the confidence to just go for it.

I went to my first real IM seminar a few weeks ago and I can tell you when I saw the entire lineup was men it made me wonder why – why aren’t there more women speaking here? My first thought wasn’t because the men were shutting the women out. What it felt like to me was that men market very differently from women and rightly so – we ARE different (ya know – men are from mars, women from venus kind of thing). I learned a lot of valuable things at the conference, but I do feel I would have related more to women from a marketing standpoint.

Do I blame the men there or any internet marketing men for that – not in the least.

Did it make the information I learned any less valuable – of course not.

We need to put away that pre-programming to be all things to all people and just go for our goals and do the best we can as women, on our terms, and with all guns (ya a boy thing) blazing!

I totally agree with Lynn’s comment here:

As I said in my original IM Gender Debate blog post, I’m concerned at how the debate itself will affect our industry.

Let’s focus on building a strong internet marketing industry that includes men and women with their own unique skills and talents – that’s really not just a dream and if you look you can see it’s happening as we speak.

Here’s Lynn’s post and more details on the Stompernet part of it.

Here’s Reba’s opinions on it

Here’s someone else’s opinion (couldn’t find a name!)

So, what do you think? Is there EVEN an IM Gender Issue?

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