Dylan Smith

A certain perfect ratio

Proporti.onl is a simple tool that analyses the genders of the people you follow on Twitter.

When I first tried it a week and a half ago, it told me that 76% of the people I follow were men, 23% were women, and 1% were non-binary. That’s about a 3:1 ratio of men to women. (The results exclude brands, etc.)

I resolved to make an improvement, but I didn’t want to click around follow women for the sake of it. I don’t follow many people anyway, which makes this more difficult. Instead of padding the numbers, I’ve just been a little more quick to follow women who are notable in my industry or when they’ve tweeted something I like and I find it as a retweet, reply, or on the explore page.

Today the people I follow are 66% men, 33% women, and 1% non-binary. That’s a 2:1 ratio. It’s still not as great as it could be, but already I’ve seen a shift and broadening of voices on my timeline that has had a subtle yet noticeable effect on my perspective.

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