20 women to follow on Twitter

Women dominate the conversation on Twitter, so here are 20 dynamic female twitterati worth following

IF TWITTER has achieved one thing, it has given a voice, albeit one with a 140-character limit, to generations of people. It is the ultimate in free-speech democracy. According to a July study by social media news blog

[ Mashable.com ]

, women account for 64 per cent of Twitter users. Men may account for the lion’s share of chief executives, TDs and American politicians, but on Twitter they are outvoted.

Perhaps it’s that our society has women more accustomed to being free and easy with their “chat” levels; either way, the online conversation is flowing. The only question then is: Who should we follow?

We asked Irish Times contributors to come up with their top fives, and the list contains a wide variety of women from all walks of life. From a Saudi blogger to an Italian-American feminist and an Irish stylist, there seems to be no end to the number of women out there worth following, both figuratively and, in some cases, ideologically.

MARY FITZGERALD’S RECOMMENDATIONS

(@MaryFitzgerldIT)

Judy Dempsey @Judy_Dempsey

Insights and links on international affairs with a particular focus on Europe from Irish-born Dempsey, veteran journalist and International Herald Tribune columnist.

Anne-Marie Slaughter @SlaughterAM

The world as seen through the lens of Princeton professor and foreign-affairs specialist Anne-Marie Slaughter. Author of an explosive piece on women's work-life balance for the Atlantic magazine earlier this year, iti.ms/Qzk4EU.

Mona Eltahawy @monaeltahawy

Always provocative, Egyptian-American writer and commentator Eltahawy doesn’t hold back when it comes to opining on Arab and Muslim issues. An essential accompaniment to the changes in the Middle East.

Megan Greene @economistmeg

The euro crisis as tweeted by US-born economist Megan Greene, who analyses the financial travails of Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

LAURA SLATTERY’S RECOMMENDATIONS

(@IrishTimesLaura)

Helen Lewis @helenlewis

The droll deputy editor of the New Statesman has a keen eye for the absurd and can be relied upon to expose the double standards in how a male-controlled media views women. Lately she’s been busy tweeting her disdain for Britain’s almost all-white and very male cabinet reshuffle, and has just finished rolling her eyes at Naomi Wolf’s Vagina: A New Biography.

Martha Plimpton @MarthaPlimpton

“I put dead people’s hair on my head and talk loudly in front of strangers for money,” it says on her bio, which is New Yorker Plimpton’s way of saying she’s an actress (most recently on Raising Hope and The Good Wife). She tweets about politics, disbelievingly digesting US Republicans’ assault on reproductive rights, known in Twitter shorthand as #waronwomen.

Caitlin Moran @caitlinmoran

That the London Times columnist and TV reviewer is a major Doctor Who fan is reason enough to follow her, and some 280,000 people do. Of course, the fact that the author of the best-selling How to Be a Woman is also hilarious is a bonus. She’s an ALL CAPS enthusiast, so if you’ve got a problem with that, FRANKLY IT’S YOUR LOSS.

Anne Billson @AnneBillson

The Brussels-based film critic always has a wry, fresh take on her area of expertise and is great at stimulating conversation among movie nerds.

Sample tweet: “This is the way to spend Thursday afternoon, isn’t it? Tweeting about Bond soundtracks. We’ve done it before we will no doubt do it again.”

ROSEMARY Mac CABE’S RECOMMENDATIONS

(@RosemaryMacCabe)

Jenny Johnson @jennyjohnsonhi5

Johnson is a TV producer, writer and, according to her Twitter bio, “asshole” – but a hilarious one. She dedicates her 140-character limit to ridiculing celebrities and reserves her most cutting quips for Kim Kardashian. It may seem light-hearted, but her acerbic wit does a good job of highlighting the inherent lunacy of a culture that worships celebrity.

Hadley Freeman @hadleyfreeman

Guardian columnist and sartorial agony aunt Freeman is a laugh and a half, not just because of her casual attitude to fashion. She brings a refreshing commentary to the US presidential race and is not above tweeting about the Queen’s corgi (RIP), should the mood take her. Just don’t expect her to care about #NYFW.

Victoria Beckham @victoriabeckham

Yes, she’s famous, but we’re saved from accusations of vacuous celebrity-worship by the fact that Beckham is now a CFDA-approved designer. Her tweets offer a behind-the-scenes look at life à la Vicky B. A particular highlight is her penchant for photographing her’s and Harper’s outfits, side by side.

Angela Scanlon @angelascanlon

Irish stylist Angela Scanlon’s style is to die for and her Twitter feed is an Aladdin’s cave of photographs of covetable bags, must-have dresses and just-in sweaters. Between fashion tweets you’ll find the odd Great British Bake-Off reference or fitness update.

ORLA TINSLEY’S RECOMMENDATIONS

(@orla_tinsley)

Joan O’Connell @clicky_here

As co-founder, editor and content creator of Gaelick, a blog for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, O’Connell tweets on a range of LGBT issues and current affairs, as well as international affairs, feminism and equality.

Maria Popova @brainpicker

The 27-year-old Brooklyn writer, journalist for the Atlantic and curator of Brainpickings.orgrecently told Mother Jones she aims to tweet something that "leaves you with more than just a moment of gawking". She presents existing knowledge, ideas and inspiration in new forms that straddle many divides – cultural, political, artistic and scientific.

Suzy Byrne @suzybie

Suzy Byrne is a blogger, writer and activist who recently played a large role in getting the Government to reverse their cuts to independent-living supports. Her tweets are thought-provoking and challenge conventional narrative on a number of political and human-rights issues, particularly related to how Ireland deals with disability.

Cork Feminista @CorkFeminista

This feminist collective is headed by activist and journalist Linda Kelly, is linked with the Cork Feminista blog ( corkfeminista.com) and is one of the most comprehensive filters for equality issues, particularly women's issues, in Ireland today. They regularly post "The F-Word", short interviews on feminism featuring well-known women.

Jessica Valenti @Jessica

Valenti For tweets on the politics of parenting, Jessica Valenti is a must-follow. Valenti is a feminist author, blogger and contributor to the Guardian, the Washington Post, Ms magazine and more.

Italian-American Valenti was born in 1978 and founded Feministing.comin 2004, at the age of 26, as a place for "young feminists" due to what she saw as dismissal from some older feminists in the movement. Valenti published her first book, Full Frontal Feminism, in 2007, followed by He's a Stud, She's a Slut . . . and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, in 2008. The mother of one has just published Why Have Kids: A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenting and Happiness. It explores how women are treated as "moms-in-waiting", judged for not having children and, when they do have them, judged for how they parent.

Valenti describes herself as a “feminist evangelist” and, crucially, does not tweet in txtspk.

Tavi Gevinson @tavitulle

Tavi Gevinson has been blogging like an industry veteran since she was 11 – and whether you love her wise-beyond-her-years style or hate her precocious vocabulary and incessant overachieving, there’s no denying that, were there a definitive picture of the future of fashion media, Gevinson is close to being it.

Still, it’s difficult to take a 16-year-old cynic seriously: “How much of everything sucking is my cynicism and how much of it is just growing up?”

She began blogging in 2008, announcing: “Lately I’ve been really interested in fashion, and I like to make binders and slideshows of ‘high-fashion’ modelling and designs.”

Within months she was interviewed for an AP scare story on whether parents know what their kids are up to online (hers, Norwegian tapestry designer Berit Engen and retired English teacher Steve Gevinson, were aware but perhaps not of the heights their daughter’s fame would reach).

By late 2009, Gevinson was appearing on front rows at international fashion weeks and on the cover of Pop magazine. In late 2011, Gevinson founded Rookie, an online magazine. Earlier this year, Gevinson spoke at TED on “figuring it out” – worth a look, if you’re into taking advice from teenagers.

Lena Dunham @lenadunham

New Yorker Dunham is the 20-something you really should know about going into 2013, when the much-anticipated second series of her hit television show Girls will hit HBO.

Dunham is the daughter of painter and photographer Laurie Simmons and went to school in Brooklyn, where she met Jemima Kirke, Girls co-star and actress in Tiny Furniture, Dunham’s 2010 feature film.

This 26-year-old writer, comedienne and actress tweets about love, feminism, relationships and pop culture. A recent example on Clint Eastwood and that chair speech: “There must be a team of fabulous gay men who keep Clint Eastwood from looking his full 172 years. And they must be f**king pissed today.”

Dunham’s television show is possibly the most realistic depiction of a modern generation of 20-something women the 21st century has seen: sex scenes are awkward and embarrassing; bodies are soft, tattooed and untanned; and friendships are always complicated, sometimes selfish, often one-sided and, ultimately, honest.

Eman al-Nafjan @Saudiwoman

Al-Nafjan is a PhD student at King Saud University in Riyadh. She has an MA in applied linguistics from Birmingham University and blogs at saudiwoman.meon events in the Middle East and, among other topics, what it means to be a woman in Saudi Arabia today.

The Riyadh-based blogger and mother of three provides a fascinating window into Saudi society, culture, women and human-rights issues.

Al-Nafjan also contributes to the New York Times, most recently writing an op-ed piece entitled Saudi Arabia, My Changing Home, on June 8th.

In it, she dispelled a lot of popular Western myths about life as a Saudi woman: “For the average middle-class Saudi woman who comes from a healthy family background, life is pretty good.”

10 MOST-FOLLOWED WOMEN ON TWITTER

1 Lady Gaga,@ladygaga, 29 million

2 Katy Perry, @katyperry, 26m

3 Rihanna, @rihanna, 25m

4 Britney Spears, @britneyspears, 20m

5 Taylor Swift, @taylorswift13, 18m

6 Shakira, @shakira, 18m

7 Kim Kardashian, @KimKardashian, 16m

8 Nicki Minaj, @NICKIMINAJ, 14m

9 Oprah Winfrey, @Oprah, 13m

10 Ellen DeGeneres, @TheEllenShow, 13m