A campaign to geek up the glossies

I read an opinion piece last week in The Guardian from Belinda Parmar, the CEO of Lady Geek, a campaigning agency inspiring women to change the world through technology.

Parmar’s article berates the women’s glossy magazine industry for their lack of technology focussed content. While I can agree that Belinda’s argument is accurate, as one woman in a branch of technology, I do not feel her dismay.

‘We found that on average, fewer than 2% of pages refer to anything tech-related, and not a single page in November's editions has an article primarily about technology.’

While this statistic is undoubtedly the case, with countless magazines focussed on technology, I cannot grasp Lady Geek’s campaign. In my eyes, when I go to read about technology I prefer to peruse an alternative source than Glamour, Elle or Marie Claire.

The female magazine market is indeed focussed on ‘fashion, cosmetics, celebrities, lifestyle and attractive men’ but it has never claimed to offer anything otherwise.

However, Belinda’s observation that the technology and fashion worlds are set to collide could not be more accurate. Retailers such as Nike are certainly beginning to experiment with wearable, stylish technology. With this in mind, I think that there will certainly be more of a calling for tech news in women’s magazines in the near future. But until then – while some may disagree, I’m happy to keep the gloss and the geek separate.