Category Reaching Women

By Tom Polanski

I spent part of the afternoon in our library and came across an article, based on PEW studies, regarding differences in the way that gender searches. All of it is pretty obvious. It’s not rocket science. Gender traits, many of them seemingly stereotypical, carry over to the internet.

For example, women are social people who multitask and browse. A woman looks at the internet as a means to connect with others of a like mind. She is more likely to use the internet to stay in touch with family and community. Our research shows that women are more likely to belong to and participate in forum and social media sites than men. Furthermore, our testing indicates that women are more likely to shop multiple sites then men…many times simultaneously with multiple windows open. There is pleasure derived from the shopping process that is lost on men. 

In addition, the women we queried take pride in finding name brands at great prices or close facsimiles at even better prices.

Men are task oriented problem solvers. Online they have specific goals that they’re trying to meet and they want to take the shortest path possible to achieve that goal. In addition, our experiences indicate, men online, like men with the pieces of an IKEA table laid out on the floor in front of them, probably won’t read the directions. If they’re forced to, they’ll scan the directions for a highlight that will reorient their relationship to the task.  

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