

Why Women Rule The Internet (by Aileen Lee of Kleiner Perkins) - SkyMarshal
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/20/why-women-rule-the-internet/

======
kolektiv
Hmmm. If by "rule" we mean use/consume, then this seems accurate. However, in
terms of creating/leading/shaping the internet that seems to be ignored here.
I don't have particularly strong feelings one way or the other, but it seems
like it would probably be a good thing if more women were actually driving
usage and behaviour and services on the internet.

A better thing than this perhaps, which a cynic might label as "it's easier to
monetize women users". But that would be very cynical.

~~~
defen
I also found it to be a somewhat shortsighted analysis. Conventional opinion
amongst U.S. elite is that it's a very bad thing when one group controls the
means of production which is primarily utilized by another group (whether the
grouping be along racial/gender/class/other lines). But here it's celebrated.
I guess because it's an economic argument for getting more women into tech.

But we already "know" that men who go into tech are not representative of the
general male population - why would women be any different?

------
mukyu
"Males and females attend college at an almost even rate."

This isn't true. In 2008 it was 57% female/43% male and steadily growing more
lopsided. [1]

[1]
[http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2010/section1/indicator07.as...](http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2010/section1/indicator07.asp)

------
pclark
Presumably they rule the Internet because you'd be labelled sexist if you
claimed men ruled the Internet.

~~~
derleth
> Presumably they rule the Internet because you'd be labelled sexist if you
> claimed men ruled the Internet.

This is drivel. They rule the Internet because they love to shop and connect
with their friends. ;-)

Seriously: That article had actual numbers. They may be right or wrong, but
acknowledging numbers _matter_ in these discussions is an import step away
from the handwavey pop-psychology bullshit this article might have been.

~~~
pclark
To use those interesting statistics and come to the authors ridiculous
conclusion further reiterates my personal opinion that if women in tech had an
issue with how they were perceived, they'd start companies rather than _roll
of the eyes_ blog posts and _step out the room_ conference panels.

------
elptacek
This is a bit like saying cows rule the dairy industry.

------
SkyMarshal
I thought this part on Dunbar Numbers was particularly interesting:

 _"Perhaps none of this is surprising. Women are thought to be more social,
more interested in relationships and connections, better at multi-tasking.
There is also anthropological research to back this up. Dave Morin of Path
introduced me to Dunbar’s Number, proposed by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar.
The number is the theoretical limit of how many people with whom one can
maintain stable relationships (thought to be 150). But Dunbar’s most recent
research shows there are different numbers for women than men—that women are
able to maintain quantitatively more relationships within every ring of
closeness than men. Knowing that is an important factor if you want to build
and stoke social network effects. More female users will likely help your
company grow faster."_

~~~
pavel_lishin
I thought research showed that men were capable of maintaining more (as in
quantity) "shallow" relationships, while women were able to keep a higher
number of deeper relationships.

~~~
davemorin
It is actually that women maintain slightly more relationships at every level
of trust. The standard levels are: 5, 15, 50, and 150. Women tend to do around
8, 18, 80, 180. It is fairly fascinating research. Let me know if you guys
have any other questions, love talking through this stuff.

------
jerf
Point of order: Amazon Mom, despite the name, is open to single fathers and
generally anyone caring for a child. I mention this because it's worth looking
into if you are such a person, even if you aren't a "Mom".

The fact that they called it Amazon _Mom_ merely reinforces the article's
point, so this isn't disagreement. I've found it useful and I don't want non-
Moms to think it's not for them, that's all. (15% off diapers + 15% off
subscribe & save items comes out to the lowest non-sale price for diapers I've
found. That is, with a coupon and a sale we sometimes manage to beat the price
of Amazon, but it's not something you can count on.)

~~~
alanfalcon
In case it's not clear, Amazon Mom is very much available to married Fathers
too (and the plan is working, I'm getting addicted to Prime and will likely
find myself subscribing once my "Mom" status runs out).

------
mkramlich
I don't think anyone truly rules the Internet. But if one were to be really
honest and strict in trying to settle on which gender "rules" the Internet
then the strongest argument would be made for males. Yes, women might shop
more and/or converse more. But that's different from ruling. If most of the
people who shop and converse in North Korea are female, does that mean North
Korea is ruled by females? Clearly not: it is ruled by a man along with some
other military men who are loyal to him.

