While women are in no way the majority when it comes to those working with WordPress, there are plenty of examples of women who are doing some really great things with this platform. From developing plugins, themes, and contributing to the core WordPress software, as well as running successful web development studios and agencies, not to mention publishing large amounts of quality content across a range of platforms and media, there are certainly plenty of women to watch in WordPress.
Although this list is in no way exhaustive, we hope it shines the light on some less well-known members of the WordPress community, alongside some more established figures, who all happen to be women. If you are looking for some new WordPressers to follow on Twitter and pick up some excellent tips for using this platform from, then this list is just what you need.
So without further ado, here is the WP Kube list of women in the WordPress community. Hopefully it will shine a light on some people who are working on interesting projects, creating great content and doing exciting things with our favorite open source software.
Helen Hou-Sandí
Helen is the Director of User Interface Engineering at 10up, a popular web development and strategy provider for WordPress. Her ongoing role as a Contributing Developer to the WordPress core makes her one of the most high profile women involved in the development and advancement of the world’s favourite blogging platform.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Stephanie Leary
Stephanie is a published author and WordPress consultant who has helped many an aspiring developer get started with this platform thanks to her book: WordPress for Developers.
The book covers everything developers need to know in order to begin getting stuck in with WordPress. As well as publishing books on WordPress, Stephanie also provides a range of related services and has created her own selection of plugins and themes.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Andrea Rennick
Andrea has been using WordPress since 2004 and now works at StudioPress in a technical support role. She is also a regular on the WordPress.org support forums, helping users with their issues and sharing her knowledge and experience. Her expertise can also be seen in the popular WordPress All-in-One For Dummies book, for which she was a co-author. Other projects include WP eBooks.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Lisa Sabin-Wilson
After 10 years as a registered nurse Lisa switched paths in 2004 to become a freelance web designer. It heralded the start of a very productive involvement with WordPress which continues to this day. As well as starting her own web design studio, before becoming a partner at WebDevStudios, Lisa is also a published author with WordPress Web Design for Dummies and BuddyPress for Dummies amongst her list of titles. Lisa’s story proves that with the right amount of determination, pursuing the freelance dream is entirely possible, no matter what your current career.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Joyce Grace
Despite not liking cheesecake, Joyce has made a name for herself in the World of WordPress thanks to her insightful posts on the Manage WP blog and her services offered as a WordPress-focused internet marketer. With a background in journalism, Joyce’s writing abilities separate her from the crowd and help her clients realize their online potential.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Siobhan McKeown
Self-described Word Ninja, Siobhan McKeown is a prolific writer of the WordPress community, who has risen through the ranks to the lofty heights of working at Matt Mullenweg’s Audrey Capital angel investment and research company.
Via Words for WordPress Siobhan established a very popular translation service for nerds, which helped many a well-known WordPress product and service offer readable and understandable documentation and content for their users. If you’ve used any of the top WordPress related products such as ManageWP, Sucuri Security or Catalyst Theme, then you will already be familiar with her work.
Find out more: Posts // Twitter
Jessica Barnard
Jessica Barnard aka The Pixelista, is a WordPress developer and graphic designer who specializes in ‘helping women create beautiful websites’ amongst other things and works at Bourne Creative. She recently made her debut as a WordCamp speaker with a great presentation on how to rock client relationships.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Christine Rondeau
Christine has been working with WordPress since 2004 and now offers her services as a front-end developer for the platform, via her design studio Blue Lime Media. Her involvement with the WordPress community extends beyond just client work as she contributes themes, helps users via the support forms and speaks at WordCamps. As if that wasn’t enough, Christine also gives even more back to the community by sharing her learning resources for anyone teaching WordPress.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Julie Kuehl
Julie is aiming to improve the web, one site at a time and was recently a speaker at the Denver WordCamp. Her talk was on how to get around the problem that Learning WordPress Sucks, which received great reviews. As well as attending WordCamps, Julie is active in the WordPress sphere thanks to the range of services she offers such as website wrangling and writing.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Raelene Wilson
Raelene Wilson is a blogger over at the ever popular and newly re-christened WPMU DEV Blog. As a fellow WordPress blogger, her posts are always a great source of inspiration as they always go the extra mile to ensure they are informative, insightful and in-depth. Her contributions to the WPMU Dev blog theme shop review series were great examples of her work.
Find out more: Posts // Twitter
Ayla View
Ayla is a cofounder of the ThemeBoy WordPress theme shop who produced the popular Football Club WordPress theme which is now in use by over 1,000 team sites in 100 countries. Ayla was introduced to WordPress while she was running a web development agency in Japan.After discovering its ease of use for both developers and clients, she made the transition to the platform before focusing on WordPress theme development and launching ThemeBoy, with the SportsPress plugin following soon after.
Ayla is a regular fixture on the Melbourne WordPress scene and advises any women thinking of joining the community to take the plunge and attend a local event such as a Meetup or WordCamp.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Lorelle VanFossen
Lorelle first got involved with WordPress back in 2003 and hasn’t looked back since. She has contributed 100s of articles to the WordPress Codex, and has presented or keynoted at 45 WordCamps from around the world. As if that wasn’t enough Lorelle has also creates 100s of websites using WordPress for clients as part of her web design service.
On her main blog you can find countless tips and pieces of advice on using WordPress more effectively, as well as keeping up to date with all the latest WordPress news.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Jennifer Bourn
Jennifer is the Creative Director at Bourn Creative, a full service design agency that has been in business since 2005. Aside from her design and consulting work for Bourn Creative, Jennifer is a regular speaker at many industry events, as well as hosting workshops and seminars and co-organizing the Sacramento WordPress Meetup.
Jennifer and her team work closely with the Genesis framework when it comes to building client sites, so expect lots of good tips and best practice for using this popular WordPress tool.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Jeni Elliot
Over at the Blog Maven site, Jeni offers a custom blog and website design service, as well as lots of great blogging and WordPress tips. If you are looking for someone to help you reach your blogging potential, or just want to take in the best advice on promoting yourself online then this is one blog maven who is well worth checking out.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Mika Ariela Epstein
Mika Ariela Epstein AKA Ipstenu works for the popular web host DreamHost in the role of WordPress Support Specialist, using her status as WordPress Guru to make life easier for WordPress users around the globe. Mika has also written a number of books covering everyone’s favourite web platform including WordPress Multisite 101 which should appeal to all those running multiple sites from one installation.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Andrea Whitmer
Andrea is an in demand WordPress Genesis developer who builds sites for clients for a range of purposes including financial blogs, fitness sites, and photography portfolios. Her design agency, Nuts and Bolts Media, has been in operation since 2011 and has been built upon Andrea’s 18 years of experience in the field. Even if you are not looking to hire a WordPress developer right now, her blog has some great tips for getting more out of this platform.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Dorian Speed
Dorian aims to help small businesses, organisations, and bloggers get better at the internet and build an online presence they are proud of, and she does that all that via her design shop Up to Speed. Dorian is another WordPress developer who builds her creations atop of the almost industry standard Genesis framework. Her blog covers lots of the latest goings on in the world of WordPress and beyond and should be of special interest to anyone working with Genesis on a regular basis.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Susan Nelson
Susan’s development work with WordPress has led to her becoming a Recommended Genesis Developer, thanks to the projects she has completed via her Oh Hello design shop. Susan also has created a child theme, Pure Elegance, that is available for the framework and showcases her design skills.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Susan Ramsey
Susan provides theme customization for the pre-made StudioPress themes that run on the widely-used Genesis framework via her Graphically Designing photography and design studio. As well as modifying Genesis child themes, Susan also helps support the community by moderating the StudioPress forums. Her studio’s blog is regularly updated with lots of tips and tricks for using WordPress and Genesis in particular.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Rebecca Gill
Rebecca is the founder and President of Web Savvy Marketing, a design firm that offers a range of WordPress related services, as well as sponsoring WordCamp Miami 2014. The services on offer from Rebecca and her team include site development, custom WordPress theme design, and WordPress support and development.
Rebecca has even produced a number of eBooks related to online marketing to help your business grow and flourish. The Web Savvy Marketing blog is regularly updated and has lots of tips and advice for those involved in online marketing.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Dee Teal
Dee Teal AKA the Web Princess offers web development services and WordPress consulting and training. On her blog you will find countless tips on using WordPress with a strong leaning towards the Genesis framework and the WP e-Commerce toolkit.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Emily White
Emily White is another Recommended Genesis Developer and works with clients through her full-service web and print design studio. Her portfolio is packed with creative web design and lots of happy clients. Emily often partners up with Greg Young of Hard Boiled Greg, who adds his own unique brand of coding and design into the mix.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Anita Cre8tiveDiva
Anita blogs about WordPress with a focus on the Genesis framework. Through her Cre8tiveDiva website, she offers a theme and customization service, as well as creating some great looking Genesis child themes. You can also find Anita lending a hand at the StudioPress community forum, answering questions fielded by other Genesis users.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Sara Cannon
Sara designs and codes at the Range design studio where she is a partner, and brings her years of experience with art, design and typography to the WordPress projects that the team take on. Her personal art and design portfolios contain lots of interesting work and she has worked with some big-name clients through the Range agency.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Tamala Huntley
Tamala is a self-confessed WordPress fanatic who runs the WordPress Websites Done 4 U site, offering her services as a web developer and information marketer. Tamala works exclusively with the Genesis framework and its child themes when creating online spaces for clients.
Find out more: Blog // Twitter
Conclusion
There were plenty of women in WordPress to choose from when compiling this shortlist, some more well-known and some less. With so many subjects to choose from, it really creates an impression of the community being well, but not equally populated by both genders, which is great to see.
With anecdotal evidence of the percentage of women speakers at WordCamps moving closer towards a 50/50 split, it seems WordPress and its community appeals to both men and women as it continues to dominate as the blogging platform of choice. Is this because of the inclusive nature of the WordPress community? A rise in the number of women getting involved in the ‘tech’ industries? Or simply because WordPress is so awesome it can breakthrough gender barriers and inequalities?
Hopefully, as more diverse groups of people get involved with this software, the number of different and interesting things being done with it will increase, making the ecosystem a more stimulating and exciting place to be.
From your experiences of interacting with the WordPress community, what has the gender balance been like?
As a woman, have you experienced any gender related resistance from the community and individuals?
Do we need any more of these types of lists – Boys of Blogging or Pets of Publishing – or have times changed?
For a more eloquent illustration of the issues faced by women operating in the STEM subjects, take a look at the Where My Ladies At? video on YouTube for some food for though.
The post 25 Awesome WordPress Women To Watch In 2014 is written by Joe Fylan and appeared first on WPKube.