The oddness of Internet handles makes it difficult to be sure, but it is my informal impression that the readership of this blog is very heavily tilted toward men. Is that true, and if so, does anyone have an idea why? For obvious reasons the readership tends to be drawn from the Academy, but these days there is something approaching gender equality among academics, or perhaps even a tilt toward women. It may just be that a larger proportion of male commentators are willing to identify themselves by their real names. I think I am right in saying that none of the overseas commentators who have chosen to identify themselves are women.
The generational spread, on the other hand, seems to be quite broad. Obviously a blogger approaching his eightieth birthday is likely to attract some equally superannuated readers, but there certainly appear to be a goodly number of young readers, keeping in mind that like most people my age, I have a rather elastic notion of what counts as young! I mean, I have reached the point at which my students are retiring. Pretty soon, my students' students will be on Medicare.
Just wondering.
