Does Maria Shriver's Women's Nation Lack a Massive Segment?

It's been a long while since I've tapped into my inner women's circle of pals. Work has consumed me and I've had to put this blog in simmer mode. This morning, however, Yvonne DiVita's blog post cranked up the burner. 

Yvonne is a long-time blog pal and my publisher, she's also been a long-time voice for the everyday gal who's just trying to make a mark in a world that generally ignores her contributions. In her post, she takes on Maria Shriver's Women's Nation Report for two reasons: 

1. Her site focuses on Maria's pals who are only women at the top of the professional food chain.

2. The report focuses on Moms (again) (short overview here)

Yvonne's argument centered on the reports lack of diversity in its roll out and zeroed in on PANKS (Professional Aunts No Kids). As someone who writes for and with green moms all the time, it rang true. The mom stats are quoted so much that even I didn't know the Aunt stats. We 50 percenters aren't even on the radar within our own crowd. 

Interestingly, Melanie Notkin was a bit unhappy with Maria's conference call and her work, also. For those who don't know Melanie she is the founder of Savvy Auntie - a powerful group of women who represent close to 50% of the female population in the U.S. 

The green moms that I hang out with are the best and very inclusive of us who don't have kids. That's the kind of women's nation I want to see. Thank goodness for women like Yvonne who started me on the blog path and for BlogHer for promoting women bloggers at large and for Terry Gamer at Womego for bringing the voices from 500 women-owned publications forward. Without that first push, I would never have written my first post let alone a whole book. 

What this report really reinforces is that our value system that has gone from citizenship to consumership. The reason moms are quoted and tracked is because while they may have less available cash than the PANKS, they have more reasons to buy. They also share more (word of mouth) making them coveted WOM media targets because kids force them into circles of communication that we Aunts don't have. 

I'm glad the tipping point of prosperity has happened and for the attention that this report gives it, but I agree with Yvonne, it's the diversity of the crowd that makes us a stronger "nation" and it's the blogs that bring us together.