How Men & Women Use the Internet

Women are catching up with men online, but they are doing so in their own way.

In a wide-ranging look at changing Internet demographic and behavior patters, entitled "How Men and Women Use the Internet," the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. But there are differences. "Men like the Internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes," says the report.

The early days of the Internet, when male users overwhelming outnumbered females, are long gone. Today, the user population is evenly divided between men and women. In fact, young women are more likely to be online than young men — and the number of black women online has surged over the past three years.

Surveys between January and June in 2005 showed that 67% of the adult American population goes online, and that's evenly proportioned: 68% men and 66% women. Even so, women slightly outnumber men in the Internet population because they make up a greater share of the overall US population.

Older women are still lagging, however. While 34% of men 65 and older use the Internet, only 21% of the women that age say the same.

Looking deeper into the numbers in an effort to discern actual differences between the sexes, several measures indicate that men are slightly more engaged with the Internet than women. In other words, the intensity of their use — their involvement — is somewhat higher. For instance, on a typical day, wired men are more likely than wired women to go online.

In addition, during the day men tend to go online more frequently than women — 44% of men go online at least several times a day compared to 39% of women.

Men are more likely than women to have high-speed connections at home: 52% compared to 48% of women.

When it comes to accessing the Internet from home, the sexes are almost equally balanced with 89% of men and 87% of women going online at home.

It's much the same at work. Among full-time and part-time workers, 65% of men and 66% of women use the Internet.

Men are more avid consumers of online information than women. Overall, they are more likely than women to go online for:

  • News
  • Weather forecasts
  • Sports scores
  • Political opinions
  • Financial updates
  • Do-it-yourself information
  • Job-related research
  • Software downloads
  • Music downloads

Men are also more likely to listen to music, rate a product/person/service through an online reputation system, use a webcam or take a class online.

Women outpace men online when it comes to communications.

As the report states: "More women than men send and receive e-mail, and they use it in a richer and more engaging way. Women are more likely than men to use e-mail to write to friends and family about a variety of topics, from sharing news and worries to planning events to forward jokes and funny stories."

According to prior research from Pew, while both sexes appreciate e-mail's convenience, women are more likely to feel satisfied with the role of e-mail in their lives, especially when it comes to nurturing relationships. Even at work, more women feel e-mail is an effective way to handle situations and men have more negative feelings about e-mail.

For more useful demographic information, read eMarketer's Kids and Teens: Blurring the Line Between Online and Offline report.

Article from www.eMarketer.com, 13 January 2006.