Like many southern women, instead of complaining that my gender is limiting me in any area, I choose to look at the ways my gender can be used to my advantage.  While I don?t go as far as my mother, who once faked tears when pulled over for speeding, to avoid getting a ticket, I am tickled to death to accept any good will that may come my way as a result of being a woman.

The Cotillion is a perfect example of one group of conservative female bloggers that is showcasing the uniqueness of their female voices and proving that ?chick blogs aren't just about what color poopy our kids had today.?

Some have complained that the most prominent male bloggers, or ?blog daddies? as Lucianne Goldberg refers to them, don?t link frequently to women.  I disagree and know that this certainly has not been true in my case.  I realize that not every female blogger will have the same experience I have had, but I do know through my example that the possibility exists for every blogger, male or female, to make a difference.

I am a stay-at-home mom with no writing experience except that which I got in college almost 20 years ago.  In just one year of blogging, an incredible world has opened up to me. I have been read by hundreds of thousands of people -- over 100,000 per day on some of those days just before the 2004 election. People that I have watched on television and read in newspapers and magazines for years have quoted things that I have written. I was even fortunate enough to have played a part, along with a Texas stay-at-home mom blog reader, in coining a term that might someday appear in my daughters? textbooks.  Best of all, I have received hundreds of e-mails from readers telling me that something I wrote encouraged them to contribute money and to volunteer hours to various political candidates and causes. The blogosphere has opened up a world of opportunities that I never expected and that just did not exist as recently as a few years ago. 

These opportunities are equally available to men and women, but the flexibility blogs offer stay-at-home moms like me is particularly attractive.  I can take my laptop with wireless Internet anywhere in my house and even outside onto my front porch or back deck and blog while watching my kids play.  Former CBS executive Jonathan Klein?s comment that a blogger is "a guy sitting in the living room in their pajamas" may have been meant as a slam against bloggers.   I, however, choose along with many others, to embrace it.  Because one of my favorite times for blogging is late at night when the kids are in bed and there is rare peace and quiet in my home, I frequently do blog in my pajamas.  What could be better than that?

Lorie Byrd lives in North Carolina where she worked as a litigation paralegal before becoming a stay-at-home to her two daughters six years ago.  She has written at her own weblog, Byrd Droppings, the group blog, Polipundit (http://polipundit.com), since April 2004 on political matters.  She is also currently a contributor at ConfirmThem.com (http://confirmthem.com) and MediaSlander.com (http://mediaslander.com).