Where are the Right-of-Centre female bloggers?

By Jonathan Isaby

I had several messages from a female reader this morning berating ConHome for not linking enough to posts written by female bloggers.

My initial reaction in preparing this response is to say that in deciding where to link to I am gender blind and am not seeking to fulfill some form of quota when it comes to women bloggers (or BME bloggers or gay bloggers etc. for that matter). Rather, the aim is to link to quality writing and/or interesting/informative/provocative blog posts.

But even putting that argument to one side, the stark fact is that there aren't that many female Right-of-Centre bloggers out there - or of any political hue for that matter.

Whilst being no scientific survey, the latest Total Politics poll of Top 100 Conservative blogs struggles to reach ten written by women. The proportion in their equivalent list of Labour bloggers is about the same.

Jill Kirby and Julia Manning both write regularly on ConHome; there is Fiona Melville at Platform 10; Nadine Dorries is undoubtedly the best known blogging female Tory MP; and from the mainstream media, Janet Daley and Melanie Phillips are probably the two most prominent Right-of-Centre bloggers.

They are the names which immeidately spring to mind - but who am I missing? Which other female bloggers should I be reading (and linking to) more regularly?

And whilst some may want to come up with an explanation as to why there are so few female bloggers, I'd be interested to hear any suggestions you have as to the female commentators or politicians you would like to see blogging, since ConHome may be able to provide them with that platform...