Internet Gender Gap Closes in U.S., Study Says

The once-yawning gender gap in cyberspace among U.S. consumers has closed, according to a study to be released today.

Drawn by the communications flexibility of e-mail as well as burgeoning opportunities for shopping and entertainment, more than 9 million women went online for the first time in the last six months, according to a study by the Washington-based Pew Research Center.

The huge increase brings women’s total online presence to parity with men, said the center, whose findings echo those of a separate report released last month by market research firm Angus Reid Group of Vancouver, Canada.

The two studies are the latest evidence that the Internet, once a niche medium that served the mostly male academic and scientific communities, has become, with unprecedented speed, an indispensable communications tool widely embraced by Americans.

“The Internet has clearly become a part of the nation’s social fabric,” said Lee Rainie, the Pew Research Center official who oversaw the study. “The online population is increasingly looking like the rest of America.”

But contrary to some other reports, the Pew study said Internet users are not social misfits and “are more likely than nonusers to have robust social worlds.” Much of the social interaction is facilitated by e-mail. On a typical day, 33% of those who go online send five to 20 e-mail messages, and 6% send more than 20 messages.

The Internet’s impact on social behavior has been hotly debated in the wake of several highly publicized incidents, including the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado last year, in which Web sites were cited as fueling social isolationism and violence among the perpetrators of the crimes.

Some studies have claimed that hovering over a computer keyboard all day fosters isolated social misfits. But some say the Internet’s global reach and burgeoning community deepen and expand users’ relationships.

“The Internet is not isolationist; it’s ‘connectionist,’ ” said Rainie, coining a term.

Rainie said his study, which surveyed 3,533 adults by telephone during March, showed a dramatic increase in Internet use since the research center first began studying the Web five years ago.

Both the Pew report and the Angus study, which surveyed 21,000 people in the U.S. and 34 other countries, say American women and men surf the Internet in equal measure and place an equal share of the online shopping orders.

Not surprisingly, women and men use the global computer network in different ways.

Women frequent health and medical sites more than men, the Pew and Angus studies said. Men, meanwhile, spend more time researching product information online as well as trading stocks, the Pew study said. And perhaps because men on average earn more than women, they account for two-thirds of online spending, according to the Angus report.

Despite the throngs of women going online (rising to 46% of Web users from just 18% in 1996), in fact about half of Americans remain offline. And in general, the Pew study said, these nonusers tend to be older, female, poorer, less educated and less likely to be employed than Internet users as a whole.

Barbara A. Dooley, president of the Commercial Internet Exchange Assn., a Herndon, Va., trade group that represents more than 170 Internet service providers, said more women are flocking online in large measure because of the economy.

At a time when low unemployment doesn’t allow harried workers and parents much time to tend their social lives and household chores, she said, the Internet is proving to be a tremendous timesaver.

“Women are starting to go online and engage in e-commerce because it saves them time,” said Dooley, citing reports that women accounted for much of the big increase in the Christmas holiday online shopping surge last year.

The positive social impact of e-mail is certainly reflected in the Pew finding that women tend to be heavy users of e-mail and they say the technology has “improved their connection to their family and friends.”

Surprisingly, the Pew study also found that women are slightly more likely than men to play a game online despite the widespread impression that teenage boys dominate the ranks of online game enthusiasts.

Although young men and women with Internet access played games in about the same proportions, 31% of women age 50 and older reported playing an online game, while just 21% of men that age or older reported engaging in the activity.

“We don’t quite know what accounts for the difference, but my two cents is that women love connecting with others and they enjoy that connection no matter what” the communications vehicle is, Rainie said.

Brian Cruikshank, senior vice president of technology practice at Angus, said new technology such as wireless Internet access is likely to further broaden the Internet’s appeal to women. He also noted that many Internet portals are responding to the growing presence of women online by altering their content.

Indeed, several companies, such as Autobytel.com Inc., have recently overhauled their sites to appeal more directly to women Web surfers.

In a Web link at the Autobytel site titled “For Her,” the Irvine company offers its list of the best cars for women, financing and leasing tips for women, as well as such oddities as exercise advice for female drivers. One example: “Always bend at the knee when lifting an object (or a child).”

In addition, dozens of Web sites geared to women have joined the leading pioneer of women’s Web sites, IVillage.com, to target female Web surfers. The recent arrivals include Oxygen Media Inc.’s Oprah.com and Moms Online as well as Alloy.com, which targets teenage girls.

But some experts say such targeting is patronizing and could backfire.

“You can get too carried away with these comparisons that women are from Venus and men are from Mars,” said Managing Editor Kevin Werbach of technology newsletter Release 1.0, making a reference to the best-selling book by relationship counselor John Gray that focused on differences between the sexes.

“It is perhaps true that professional women are trying to balance family and careers and maybe look to the Internet to save them time, but that is not a concern that is just limited to professional women,” said Werbach, whose New York publication follows Internet issues.

Maria Schafer, a technology analyst for research firm Meta Group in Stamford, Conn., echoes Werbach’s remarks and believes that sites that specifically target women have to offer more in the way of information and customer service than simply a female touch.

“I never go to any of the sites targeting women,” Schafer said. “On balance, I think women want the same thing other users of the Internet want: quick and easy access to information. . . . My advice is simply: Make it easy for people to use your site.”