Foreign Policy magazine this week released a list of 100 Twitter users to follow to keep your finger on the pulse of foreign policy topics. Readers quickly noticed that only 15 women earned spots on the list, and now people are rallying via a Google Docs file to recommend notable females FP could consider for future lists.
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The online document is drawing significant attention, so much so that it displays an error message signaling heavy use (see image above): "There are too many people accessing this file right now."
Nearly 200 female Twitter handles have been added to the document as Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. ET.
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A handful of women have driven the campaign through tweets -- using hashtag #FPWomeratti -- with help from other Twitter users who have hefty followings.
What bugs me most about FP's gender bias is that it IS that. There are plenty of smart women who belong there.
— Jillian C. York (@jilliancyork) June 19, 2012
Kudos to @JillianCYork for starting #FPWomeratti list & thk u @Katrinskaya for sharing. Huge reminder of our pwr & reach as #women leaders.
— Semhar (@Semhar) June 19, 2012
Good. MT @danatgu: Re FP's male-heavy Twitterati list, #FPWomeratti is creating list of authoritative digital voices bit.ly/LyJJdn
— Liz Heron (@lheron) June 19, 2012
Maybe this is why people identify so strongly with Mad Men's gender roles. Because not enough has changed, dammit! #FPwomeratti
— Lisa Goldman (@lisang) June 19, 2012
#FPWomeratti is tugging on my girl power strings
— Sara Yasin (@missyasin) June 19, 2012
Nice to see the #FPwomeratti is growing. A work-in-progress. Google doc is cranky! Was talk 4 an alt male list too! ow.ly/bFXea
— Piali Roy (@PialiRoy) June 19, 2012
Bravo #FPwomeratti instigators @jilliancyork @katrinskaya @lisang @DaliaEzzat @pialiroy Piali@Semhar @krmaher et al.bit.ly/MJZwns
— Avril Benoît (@avrilbenoit) June 19, 2012
But not everyone is supporting the list. V.V. Ganeshananthan points out this unfavorable behavior:
If you look at the #fpwomeratti document, you can watch anonymous cowards trying to erase women. In realtime. It is gross.
— V.V. Ganeshananthan (@Vasugi) June 19, 2012
I should have noted: you can also watch awesome women get around the anonymous cowards. #fpwomeratti
— V.V. Ganeshananthan (@Vasugi) June 19, 2012
Foreign Policy describes its Twitterati list as such:
In a year of economic and political upheaval, with China on the rise, Europe seemingly in meltdown, and the Middle East in flames -- amid a pitched battle for the White House -- here are the 100 Twitter feeds you need to follow to make sense of it all. To make it easy, we've even collected them for you in a handy, one-stop list.
The women FP included on the list, which was published Monday, are:
- @Saudiwoman: Eman Al Nafjan
- @pjaroonFP: P.J. Aroon
- @GEsfandiari: Golnaz Esfandiari
- @CChristineFair: C. Christine Fair
- @economistmeg: Megan Greene
- @larsonchristina: Christina Larson
- @newsjean: Jean Lee
- @rmack: Rebecca MacKinnon
- @lpolgreen: Lydia Polgreen
- @AmbassadorRice: Susan Rice
- @SlaughterAM: Anne-Marie Slaughter
- @MatinaStevis: Matina Stevis
- @LizSly: Liz Sly
- @HirokoTabuchi: Hiroko Tabuchi
- @techsoc: Zeynep Tufekci
Thumbnail courtesy of iStockphoto, courtneyk
This story originally published on Mashable here.
