Devoted to hardware, software, IT issues, and information technology management

By YC from the Technocrat Soapbox
( Guest Blogger )

According to a survey conducted between March 2000 and September 2005, The Pew Charitable Trusts report today that a larger proportion of women are going online than men. Although numbers show that a slightly larger percentage of men (68%) are online than women (66%), the report reminds us that the female population in the U.S. is actually larger than that of the male.

Listed among the many interesting statistics in the report are:

1. Younger women (86%) are more likely to go online than their male counterparts (80%). This trend is the opposite in older persons (65% v. 21%).
2. Black women (60%) are more likely than black man (50%) to go online.
3. Unmarried men (62%) tend to be online more than unmarried women (56%).

The report goes on to state that while men are motivated to go online by the experiences (e.g. online gaming; e-trading; music and movie downloading; smut surfing; and *cough* blogging) that the internet provides, women tend to use it to improve their social connections (e.g. e-mailing, online chatting, e-learning, and *sneeze* blogging).

As the younger generation becomes more and more IT savvy, businesses will benefit tremendously by investing EQUAL portions of their marketing budget to both gender demographics. Right now, we are only seeing "Grand Theft Auto-resque" games being advertised on TV, very little attention is given to games like "The Sims". Currently, the internet offer a great slew of activities geared toward men (e.g. Fantasy Football, Online Poker, Victoria Secret Fashion Shows), not so much for women. Watch Ballet Competition on ESPN.com? I don't think so. Most internet pioneers today are male (e.g. Larry Page, Vinton Cerf, Bill Gate$, Craig Newmark, the list goes on). The only female trailblazer that I can think of is Meg Whitman (CEO of eBay). Anne Mulcahy doesn't count because XEROX is not traditionally an internet company and Carly Fiorina (former HP CEO) has already been forced out of town.

All that may soon change.

In retrospect, Apple's decision to offer the iPod in a gender-neutral color and design represents the forward-thinking mentality that, I think, all businesses might have to adopt soon.

 

Read Highlights: How Women and Men Use the Internet

Read Full Report (PDF): How Women and Men Use the Internet