This week on twitter @QueenofSpain and @DaveTaylor started a lively conversation about where are the women speakers at conferences. Last year at Blog World all the keynote speakers were men.

Over the past few years, I hear more and more women complaining about the same thing.

I like to make a few disclaimers before going any further….

1. Nothing against guys. I’m married to one for almost 24 years. He is totally awesome.

2. Some of my best mentors are guys and I’m eternally grateful to them. I wouldn’t be where I am today if they didn’t take me under their wing and shared their knowledge.

3. My top clients are guys and I wouldn’t be in business without them.

With that said I too have become frustrated with the "good ole boy network" that appears to dominate the internet.

According to eMarketer women now outnumber men using the internet and The US Census bureau posted these figures on women business owners:

6.5 million -The number of women-owned businesses in 2002, up 20 percent from 1997. (The increase among all businesses was 10 percent.) An estimated 916,768 such firms had paid employees, with receipts of $804 billion.
$940.8 billion - Receipts for women-owned businesses in 2002, up 15 percent from 1997.

Those are some pretty impressive figures. So I decided to quit spending money on "good ole boy network" products and services a couple of years ago when I encouter the following:.

When I visit a web page and see nothing but guy testimonials or guy speakers, it says two things to me

1. Your product doesn’t work for women or your service isn’t for women.

2. You don’t need my money.

The earlier days of the internet didn’t give you much of choice. Let’s face it, guys were the earlier adopters. They were the one with the information. I learned a lot from them. But the demographics of the internet is changing.

Today there is no excuse. There are some very powerful and knowledgeable women on the internet including:

Deb Micek
Mari Smith
Denise Michaels
Alexandria Brown
Lori Morgan-Ferrero
Terri Levine
Melanie Benson-Strick
Anita Campbell
Penny Haynes
Donna Fox
Loral Langemeier
Stephanie Frank
And there are many more…

So why are women still being ignored?.

Here is my opinion and feel free to share yours

1. Habit.

Guys are just in the habit of looking within their circle of buddies for speakers, testimonial etc. I don’t think guys realize the subliminal message they are sending to women. At one of our Toastmaster meetings, a guy gave a speech on exception people. All people in his speech were men.

When it came time for his critique every women notice the male dominance of his speech. He lost 50% of his audience. His response… he wasn’t even aware of the message he was sending. He was also very grateful for the insight.

2. Bottom Line

If you promote an event virtual or real world with more women speakers, will people pay to participate?

Can women draw in the money or is it just perception that only men can draw in the big bucks?

Are women showing their support by spending their money for women dominated events?

Next week Adam Urbanski, of www.themarketingmentors.com/, put together a series of teleseminars featuring the top Social Networking experts.

Surprise… Surprise… all 5 speakers are women…. Kudos to you Adam.

This series is free… It’s a no brainer to sign up and attend.

I’m going to propose a challenge to all you women out there… put your money where your mouth is… upgrade and get the transcripts.

I believe women need to start supporting each other more not just emotionally but with purchase power. Men have supported each other monetarily for years.

Disclaimer: I make NO money promoting this!!!!!

Yes I did buy the transcripts to show support for my Coach Deb Micek and my mentor Mari Smith. I know these two will be sharing some incredible information and I can’t wait to here the other speaker too..

So Join us… The Contact to Contracts Seminar http://snipurl.com/0624