No difference...

I'm wrapping up a web content contract this week. It's an 80-page website for a local real estate broker. I've written two other sites for this broker, and I'm more than a little bored with the subject. Pulling teeth would be a good description of the process of writing yet another community profile with the obligatory disclaimers about the local MLS, written differently for all 80 pages. But...it's almost done, and I get to send an invoice on Wednesday...always a good thing.

Right after that, I'm starting writing a site for an HR executive placement and recruiting company. I did the client interview about a month ago...the usual informational questions and questions about the tone the website should take. The thing about this site that I thought might be different was that the person who owns it makes a big point about it being a "woman-owned company." But when I did the client meeting, I could not, for the life of me, see any difference between the conversation with the woman who owns this company and any other company for which I've written a website. Same questions. Same issues. Same thing all around.

So, I asked. "Is there anything I should consider about the content that has to do with it being "woman-owned." The owner said, "No. Not really. It's just that most of the HR executives who come through this office are women, and we think it might be a selling point." So I asked what percentage of HR executives were women in the businesses who hired her to find talent for their company. "About 75%," she told me.

In my thinking about how to approach this site's content, I gave some thought to the audience who would be visiting it, as I always do. Sometimes, there's a demographic that I can target, and subtle language differences and tone that speak to that demographic. Sometimes the company's products or services require me to think about the income level or educational level of the target client, and shift the level of diction and word choices to suit. But, for the life of me, I couldn't come up with anything I'd do differently for a demographic of highly-educated and accomplished women than I'd do for a group of men with the same backgrounds.

I liked that. So, the content will be aimed at highly-educated corporate executives who deal with Human Resources issues. I can do that, and I don't have to think, even for a second, about their gender. There is no difference. It is the same job, with the same requirements, and the same set of issues applicants and those who hire them have to deal with. It's a job, not a gender.

It should be a fun project, since I'll get to educate myself on HR issues and hiring practices. I love new things to learn. Life's a treat!