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Women Buy More Tech Than Men
Computerguy5 writes "According to a Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study, released at this past Consumer Electronics Show (CES), women accounted for $55 billion of the $96 billion dollar market. 40 percent of women surveyed responded that they were treated better when accompanied by a man. CNN reports on the findings."
Yeah, but those electronics usually involve the settings: Slow, Medium, and Fast! :D
Men earn money, women spend it.
If I didn't have a woman to remind me, I wouldn't even remember to buy food!
Men use duct tape, thus extending the life of certain pieces of equipment that thus don't require replacing...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
I'm sure that there must be SOME link between the headline and the article... but I'm buggered if I can see what it is.
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
that tells me that the men are finding the better deals.
I see women buy technology all of the time. Most of the time, they're not sure what it does, so they buy it anyway. I could see a lot of women walking into compusa and buying somthing they absolutely have no use for.
In other news woman talk about their feelings more then men and men watch more football then woman.
Oh and the sky is blue. News at 11.
http://saveie6.com/
If you have not done so yet, get a woman in your product design team.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Tech salespeople would rather sell to a man than a woman because women don't go all glassy eyed and impressionable around bright, shiny things.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
What /.ers consider "Tech" is a small subset of "Consumer Electronics"
I refuse to believed this. I go to Radio Shack fairly often and you rarely see any women in the shops.
I think there is an agenda behind this "Report",
Help fight continental drift.
I don't buy a ton of tech stuff - but I have it. Gifts, building my own stuff, whatever. My fiancee buys a lot, though - laptop, PDA, camera, etc.
Her sister walked into Best Buy and despite my specific instructions, let the salesguy talk her into a much worse digital camera for $100 more. On another occasion, she was talked into a TV tuner card and a "special cable" that she couldn't use without an additional upgrade from her old video card... I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up buying Mac software for her Windows XP box.
It's not just tech, either - lots of women are conned at car dealerships or other sales places. Even if she's smart - she's probably too trusting.
Nearly three-quarters of women surveyed by the industry group complained about being ignored, patronized or offended by sales people when shopping for electronics.
At least the sales staff a Fry's Electronics don't discriminate; they'll ignore you reguardless of your gender :)
Hon, can you go to the shop and pick me up *insert gadget/techno babble here*
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
we DO spend more time shopping and finding sales [/gross generalization]... and buying technology isn't like buying cars... it's not like there's a lot of haggling going on, so I'd think it's fair to say they'd get the same bang for their buck. I don't walk out of best buy feeling cheated, although I have experienced the "oh, you're a girl, you don't know what it MEANS when I say 4.2 GHz or DDR or anything FANCY like that... here let me show you the pretty PURPLE computer..." phenomenon. Trick is... ignore the sales-people, or bring a male for decoy-work.
This might be a surprise to those here but sometimes girls will buy stuff for guys.
A guy who buys a girl an electronic gift is being "insensitive".
A girl who buys a guy an electronic gift is a total babe.
So maybe all that extra spending is just gifts.
As a consequence Lego will now ditch the silly little colored blocks and design more Adult like products. Inflatable dolls for dad and longer more sturdy colored artifacts for mom.
Help fight continental drift.
Women probably buy more cell phones than men; and I'm sure that cell phones make up a large portion of the tech market.
40 percent of women surveyed responded that they were treated better when accompanied by a man./em?
I have a classic household. I earn the dough, she runs the house. We work together with the kids (now 18 and 16). We are both happy with this arrangement. I am a geek - Linux, Windows, C, Java, that is my territory. She runs the house - including plumbing, electricity, and all that it takes to make the house work. We have had extensions to the house - we agree it, she gets the contractors to do it, I pay. All fine.
Except, will the contractors, or any workman we call in, listen to her? Will pigs fly? Over and over again I have to relay *her* orders to the contractors - because they won't obey a female voice. It makes my blood boil, over and over again, when I have to phone some stupid contractor to tell him, in a bass voice, what my wife has told him contralto, and been ignored.
OK, our household is eccenrtic (for a lot more than is in this post). But WTF cannot contractors respect the pover of the the chequebook (checkbook) and DO WHAT THEY ARE PAID FOR!
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
People tend to be pretty sensitive about their purchasing experiences when shopping. With cars, there are usually a lot of competitors within easy driving range. If a woman feels peeved that she's not being properly treated, she simply won't shop at that store. The free market should take care of things, to be honest.
I'm not married, but I suspect that if I was and was talking to a furniture salesman at an interior furnishings store with my wife, the wife is more likely to be addressed by default. I suspect the salesman would end up speaking more to whoever is asking more questions, in the end. I don't find the concept of this particularly offensive or irritating.
My guess about the feature list: as Slashdotters love to note about tech items, many technology products have bullet points and specs listed that are not particularly useful in actually judging the limitations and capabilities of the product. For some reason, some quirk of the male and female psyche, I rarely see females proudly enumerating, showing off products to their friends based on bullet points. I *do* see guys doing this. Hence, different bullet points being handed to the men. It's just something that the salesman (or -woman, given the context of this article) hopes will sell an item more effectively.
May we never see th
I few years ago my fiance was shopping for a new computer, which she wanted to buy from Dell. I told her that she shouldn't buy a P4 because the performance advatage was minimal and the Rumbus ram was expensive.
She bought the p4 anyway, because it came in black.
I actually know quite a few gadget girls. But I've yet to find one who could link up their GP32 with mine.
i think it's true that women buy more than men.
personally (male) before i put my money down for anything, i need to think over and over again, because i just read on Slashdot that version 2 of xx is coming out soon etc etc.. so with all these sources of information, i usually end up buying nothing.
my wish list so far:
1. PDA (palm or PPC? WiFi, CF, SD...?)
2. DVD-Writer (which brand? how fast?)
3. Mini PC (get 400MHZ FSB or wait for 433)?
4. LCD (15" or 17", what response time, what res?)
5. CPU (AMD or Intel? 32bit or 64Bit? 128K or 256K cache?)
6. CPU Fan (80mm or 120mm?)
the list can go on, and i haven't bought any of the above yet, although the list started about 2 years ago.
"Nearly three-quarters of women surveyed by the industry group complained about being ignored, patronized or offended by sales people when shopping for electronics."
Probably three-quarters of men would complain about the same thing.
"40 percent of women surveyed responded that they were treated better when accompanied by a man."
Does that mean that 60 percent were treated better when they weren't accompanied by a man?
sig's not here
Well isn't that some sad, stereotyped shit(?) According to the article, women complained about being patronized in tech stores. But what the hell kind of image of women do the tech manufacturers have?
1. "Well, these 'women' are always in the kitchen, right?!"
2. "True dat, so why not refit our gadgets so they match kitchen cabinets and stuff!"
3. "We've got it! Profit!"
What's the word I'm looking for
668.5
I've just had a quick scan through the initial (100 or so) responses to this story. It seems there is little variation between the responses; most of them fall into one of the following categories:
None of these responses really makes any serious attempt to address the issues behind the story. Instead, they appear to regard the story as an attack on their technical savvy, and by association an attack on their manliness. This may explain why so many responses proceed to trash either the figures quoted, or women themselves. Is it any wonder why so many men on /. complain about not getting laid?
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Interestingly I am often treated better when with a woman.
More women approach me when I am out with some friends who are girls.
Whether it is at the pub, or shopping.
I think one reason is that girls are less afraid, and guys are attracted to the women.
As for women being treated better with a guy, probably something similar is happening. For some reason couples are just treated better.
Or it could be that the people serving hate women. Or women are worse customers to the servers. Or all of these reasons and more.
People treat me a lot better when I don't have a beard too.
The world is a strange place. Lick a mirror with your tongue.
We have a saying around here, stolen from the movie 'The Boiler Room'... and that is Don't Pitch the Bitch.
Crude, but women are such a fucking hassle when you're trying to sell stuff at a higher price than they think its worth. Men are a lot easier to cajole, and don't keep throwing up concerns or calling you every day to see why you didn't do what you promised yet. Men are definitely a lot easier to scam.
Is that I am more of a tech nerd than 95% of the guys I know, and every time I walk into a computer store, jiffy lube, or hardware store, the people there treat me like a slobbering 2 year old.
I swear this conversation happened about 3 weeks ago:
[sales rep-tile] "Can I help you?"
[me] "Nah, I'm just looking for a network card."
[sales rep-tile] "This is a good one, and we can put it in for you."
[me] "Oh, I'll just put it in myself."
[sales rep-tile] "Now sweetheart that's very complicated, are you sure you should try that?"
Sometimes it's difficult to refrain from telling them to kiss my ass.
- Kate
"DNA is life. The rest is just translation."
Its also full of electronic gadgets from microwaves, TV, DVD, Video, Sat, ovens, washing machine/dryers, dishwasher, burglar alarms, WIFI/cable, dimmers, coffee/tea makers, breadmaker, mixers, fridge, freezer, printers, blenders, grillers, icemakers, water coolers, games consoles and air-con.
Now we geeks may think that after spending 5 hours evaluating various models of MP3 players before we make out informed decision that we are kings of technology: think again. In sheer tonnage the wife's purchasing decisions in electronics (or rather stuff that uses electricity) easily outweighs and out-costs the few gadgets we get left to decide to buy. We're just the grunt labour who have to cart this stuff home and install it and truthfully being a geek, I prefer to work out how to install something that someone else has bought as the shopping side of things can burn you out.
Nuff said as I still have to adjust declination on sat-dish as its not tracking all the arc right and still haven't replaced the soap dispenser on the dishwasher and the SCART switcher has lost audio on one socket. Labour saving ? A husband's work is never finished !
Anything that is more than twice as powerful as what you could get for the same money three years ago. Alternatively, anything that costs less than half what it did three years ago.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Women like to see things physically before they buy them. It's been a big thing with online shopping the past few years. Women have just recently started to outnumber men in ecommerce sales. I don't know about the stuff you buy, but I can normally find a better deal online from places like NewEgg than at the friendly, local Best Buy.
My step-father on the other hand, can't change a light globe and when asked by my mother for a Hammer Drill for her birthday, didn't know what one was and I haven't taught him how to use the memories or key-lock on his mobile phone because its too complicated for him.
That said, my father makes an excellent salesman, whereas my mother (when she tried it) was average at it.
Sometimes people don't fit into the stereotypes - sometimes they do - stereotypes can make things easier (the first question asked when getting presents for children is "boy or girl?") but also limit the options you have.
I wonder if the the fact that some women have problems dealing with technology sales people is because most of them are male, and are typically used to dealing with males in technology areas. This is changing, but it won't happen immediately. The stereotypes may be plain wrong, but still take a while to change.
Holy moly is this place awfully sexist or what?
Don't get me wrong. I have a sense of humour, and I enjoy jokes about the stereotypes that are associated with men AND women, but I'm suprised at how unsympathetic most people posting here are.
When my girlfriend goes out and gets treated poorly at a computer or electronics store, it pisses both of us off. It's totally unreasonable. We both make a living as programmers, but she's the one with the Master's degree in CS, while I have a lowly Bachelor's. There's no reason to treat us differently. She knows as much as I do. (More, obviously, given our educational differences.)
I've never really understood how people can put up with widespread sexism. These women are our wives, daughters, mothers and sisters. When they get treated poorly, I get angry about it. Don't any of you care that if/when you get a girlfriend, some retarded drone that works a low-paying retail job in some warehouse store thinks that he's so much better than the person that you've decided is a worthwhile human being that you like to spend time with that he's going to insult her intelligence?
C'mon. Stop with the 'go make me a sammich, beyotch!' jokes. They're an insult to men and women alike.
I dunno, when it comes to buying new boxen, every (male) geek friend I know spend endless amounts of time (only online though) on research, comparisons, searching for deals, etc. Although the same goes for the, sadly few, geek women I know. But then, if I was offered a 4.2 GHz, that's an impulse buy right there ;)
668.5
the biggest issue isnt so much a stereotype... it's that the vast majority of women want nothing to do with cars and computer internals. In the same way men who know britney spears social life or who watch soap operas are also unexpected.
Cahnces are many ladies will assume i know nothing about lots of "pop-cutlture" stuff... and will be surprised if i do.
And most men who do techy jobs, tend not to see to many women with any degree of know-how above ctrl-alt-delete (sometimes even thats a stretch)
Not that any moron you be con-descedning... but if youve ever done half the support calls i have.... most women i help are far less prone to knowing where the run menu is... how to type into the command line.... etc...
Is it biast? partialy... is it right? no.... but is it understandable why someone might expect that you may not be inclined towards tech given their experience? You say 95% of the guys you know are less skilled at tech... but how many of them (percentage wise) wouldnt know what/where "run" is?
this is not to be confused with good customer service, the rule of thumb there is to let the customer show you how ignorant they are BEFORE you talk down to them.
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
Statistics show that 94.52% of all surveys that do not give details on sample size and sampling methods are bogus. Trust me.
Women are the more substantive consumers over man. Who do you think they're buying the "tech" for?
A man wouldn't refrain.
There's your problem.
(Of course, if you want to be extra manly, pop 'em one in the jaw for insulting a lady. It is, after all, the chivalrous course of action in when faced with such discourtesy.)
Microsoft Windows is, fittingly, the official Desktop OS of Olig
Here is a clue, I have a Master's in Computational Physics and I spend a lot on tech gadgets and computers. Imagine that a 42 year old, little old lady who does something besides buy gadgets for her husband.
I have been so patronized in tech stores I do almost all my tech shopping online now.
"No I do not need a large LCD to draw pictures on, I need it to see physics simulations."
"No I don't need a pop-up blocker, I use Linux and OSX, I out grew Windows when it was on version 3.11"
"No I don't need your over priced warrenty, if it breaks I'll fix it myself."
If it is true that women do most of the spending on tech stuff, then I expect like me they are doing most of it online and these patronizing boys will before too long all be unemployeed.
At issue here is that there are a large group of people that on occasion get at best dismissed and at worst harassed when buying tech products.
Ask me how many times a sales guy can't look me in the eye cause my tits are too distracting, or how many times my product choices are second guessed simply cause I'm wearing a skirt, and I then have to go and recite all the specs of the product from memory IN ADDITION to the competing products to prove that believe it or not, I'm not an impulse tech shopper and fully research and plan all of my purchases. (actually, I enjoy that part, cause the sales 'dudes' then shut up fast and realize they've been outclassed, hopefully learning it's bad sales strategy to have any preconceptions of their customers).
Also fortunate in this sense, bricks and mortars RARELY have the best prices and online stores have yet to discriminate in the least when I purchase all the tech products for my document imaging business and my personal armory of gadgets.
Motivational quote for the day: Try thinking of women as more than brainless bank account draining bimbos and maybe you'll find one that's not.
My whole life is computers. I have been taking apart/breaking/tinkering with/programming computers since my father brought home a Commodore 64 all those years ago. It pisses me off to no end when some slick haired little sales moron assumes I know less about computers than my boyfriend, who doesn't even understand why he needs to keep up on the latest XP patches and wondered why his computer kept rebooting after leaving it on his school's network without patches or a firewall.
I finally got fed up years ago when, while browsing laptops, some sly salesguy looking for his commission paid more attention to the guy I was with, who was about to run over to the console games section and had no interest in computers, than me, the potential sale. He instead pointed me to the dayglo ibooks and wouldn't answer any of my questions, all while chatting it up with my friend about processors. I made it very clear to his manager that I was very ready to make a pretty large purchase at his store, but since his salespeople weren't willing to give me the time of day I'd be taking my business elsewhere. About a week later I faxed the store a copy of my invoice for a $3000 custom job, plus oodles of accessories and software. I got an apology and a ~$10 gift certificate about a month later. I gave the card to my dad and optioned not to return.
Gawd - I can't recall the last time that a Slashdot discussion has so little of value in the follow up posts.
Surely anyone in the tech business should be considering why the 50% of the population without testicles is treated so shabbily. I mean, even car dealers eventually figured that one out and ditched the "little woman" attitudes.
I take great pride in watching my wife in big box electronic stores, dealing with sales drones who obviously know significantly less than she does. And it's not because she's a super tech geek (sure, she can upgrade gear but mostly she just wants every new toy and gadget), it's because so many of those guys don't have friggin' clue and make their living by bullshitting the customer.
Think about it - if the retail electronics culture consistently insults female customers, it's likely that the same attitudes show up at the corporate level. How about we survey a few dozen female execs and see how often they've walked away from million dollar tech purchases because the sales guys treated them like Barbie.
Three Squirrels
Disclaimer: I am totally not sexist. In fact, I am very liberal and pro-womens (and everyones) rights.
But people who are uptight about things like this really irk me. There's a reason many stereotypes exist, and that's because they're mostly based around at least a portion of truth.
It is a statistical (and biological) fact that men are more inclined to be adept at technical things. This in *NO WAY* suggests that there aren't also many, many adept women as well. But going by numbers alone, given a male and a female, odds are much higher that the male is more technicly adept then the female.
The converse is also true. If I walk into the appliance department of Sears with my SO, guess who the salesman goes after? Not me, thats for sure. Same with other household amenities.
No, I don't get offended when the salesman approaches my SO instead of me. And I wouldn't be offended if they assumed I knew jack shit about it either, because they'd likely be right. Just like someone would likely be right assuming my SO knows jack shit about computers.
Truth is, most people *want* to be helped when purchasing this type of stuff. The salesman is just doing his job. Hell, half the salesmen in the PC sections treat me like a fool as well. Maybe because most PC buyers don't know anything about them?
People get offended too easily nowadays.
I don't know about your house, but at mine, the woman buys all the gifts. Christmas, birthday, weddings, etc. And since I'm a geek, a lot of my friends are geeks, too. So tech stuff is a good bet when it comes to gifts. I imagine that women do BUY more tech, but I would like to see a survey on who USES more tech!
--If you don't test it, it won't work. Guaranteed.
CEA study? I'm sure this analysis was unbiased and only considered opinions from appropriate participants. Plus, kdkgjdjig
Whoops, sorry, I got an orgasm while washing my hair.
The previous posters will not have any problem keeping a woman entertained.... although should they continously buy gifts that meet the afore mentioned speed settings... they may not keep them long.
What? I have to really struggle to think of someone I know who doesn't own a cell phone, male or female. The reason they spend more money in that category is due the fact women just don't know when to shut the hell up. Trust me, it's the reason men are labeled as poor listeners, after thousands of years of evolution we developed this ability to 'tune-out and nod our heads' just to keep our sanity. That and the fact we could no longer just knock them out with our clubs and drag them back to the cave any longer. :-(
I'd say 100% of customers (male and female) at Fry's Electronics would report at least one of those responses from sales people.
Hmm, and I've had rude sales people at Radio Shack, Circuit City, Best Buy, and pretty much all of em. I'm sure that sales people are more likely to be patronizing to a woman buying technology - but I think the 75% mistreatment number is a bit of misleading hyperbole because it fails to account for the fact that low level retail sales is generally carried out by surly teens who hate their job.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
Check out this Sample Size Calculator.
In a nutshell, for 150,000,000 you need a sample of about a 1000 people to get a representative result.
Three Squirrels
It's clear that more or less, you're an idiot. A sexist one at that. It would take too long to respond to the massive amount of drivel that you clearly spent a lot of time typing, but I will correct one particular point.
'Materialism' is a desire to have physical things - materials. 'Material' is derived from the latin 'materialis' (and the french 'materia') meaning 'stuff'. 'Mater' means 'mother'.
That's the problem with people like you. You never actually do your research, and are content to merely blather on mindlessly with no idea of what's actually going on.
I'll leave you and your misogeny alone now.
// begin obvious
// end obvious
// begin disclaimer
// end disclaimer
// begin snickering
// end snickering
who in here has a significant other?
no, no, I know that _some_ slashdotters have mates.
*snicker
Actually, the modern high heeled shoe was develped by a woman-Catherine de Medici. She used them due to her short stature, and introduced them to the European aristocracy, who found them fashionable. Popularity declined temporarily in the 17th century when the English Parliament punished as witches all women who used high heels to seduce men into marrying them.
More primitive types of high heels were used widely in ancient Egypt, classical Greece, and medieval Japan. For more details see this article.
The pushup bra was invented by a man-Howard Hughes commissioned a team of engineers to assist his actress for a role in a Hollywood movie.
However, the vibrator was invented by a man, for men: Joseph Mortimer Granville invented the vibrator in the 1880s, initially for male skeletal muscle treatment. There was the even less appealing 1918 "Prostate Gland Warmer and Recto Rotor," advertised as "the latest and most efficient invention for the quick relief of piles, constipation, and prostate trouble." Male doctors treating women for "hysteria" adapted the invention to their own needs with much greater success. Physicians ranging from Hippocrates to Freud believed they had to coax the wandering womb back to its proper place or size with "massage treatments." The Greek physician Galen (AD 129-c. 216) noted that: "Following the warmth of the remedies and arising from the touch of the genital organs required by the treatment, there followed twitchings...From that time on she was free of all the evil she felt."
Doctors used vibrators to automate medical massages of the "hysterical region" because not all women are hot. As James Marion Sims put it in 1884, "If there was anything I hated, it was investigating the organs of the female pelvis." Sims was an Alabama slave owner who experimented on slave women (some purchased expressly for this purpose) in his own backyard "hospital" during 1845-49. While doggedly pursuing a cure for vesico-vaginal fistula, he operated unsuccessfully and without anesthesia on dozens of slave women before inventing the speculum, which allowed him to operate with much higher rates of success.
Read more here and here.
According to Betty Dodson, feminist author and sex therapist, vibrators were also commonly used in barber shops as a treatment for baldness ("Trust men to use it on the wrong end!" she says.) Dodson maintains she was the first feminist to publicly introduce electric vibrators to women solely for orgasmic benefits. "My boyfriend first introduced me to the Oster vibrator in 1966. He was getting his scalp massaged by a barber when he thought, 'This would be great for clitoral stimulation' and he bought one from a Barbershop supply store." In 1971 Dodson began to teach masturbation workshops, focusing on how to use a vibrator.
But it was women, not the patriarchy, that objected-Dodson claims she faced opposition by some of the more mainstream feminists, who didn't like her reliance on a sex aid. She explains, "They wanted to have true love and romantic orgasms with Ms. or Mr. Right, not independent orgasms with a damn machine! However, there were many housewives in the city and suburbs who were more than interested in what I had to say about female masturbation."
We even get some contributions from the experts-Candida Royalle, best known for her feminist porn films, has created the Natural Contours vibrator, a curved device designed to mould itself to the shape of the vulva.
Unfortunately, the vibrator still remains controversial. In 1998, the US state of Alabama passed a law banning vibrators. It was deemed obscene to sell or manufacture a sexual device which was considered to be "harmful", with 1 year hard labour or a $10,000 fine as punishment. This law was similar to those in 5 o
If it rattles and it shouldn't, then use duct tape. If it is suppose to rattle and doesn't, then use WD-40.
(I'm gonna get flamed, but it's late, I'm cranky, and a little venting of one's spleen can be therapeutic)
Can't agree with all of what you had to say, but your reference to the constant propaganda against men that passes as "advertising" is spot on.
I wish I could be trusted to give cold medicine to my kids or feed them dinner, but according to the message I get from the media I'm just a stupid man that should know better than to try to do a Woman's job.
Give this a try, next time you see an ad on TV, mentally switch the gender of the subject from male to female. Funny how easily and quickly the word "sexist" springs to mind....
In my experience, the normals ask geeks for tech buying advice to reach out to geeks, not to get help. Most people are so intimidated by tech that when they finally feel confident enough to bring new gear into their lives, it's a breakthrough. So when they talk to a geek about it, they're trying to get social acceptance in what they think are the geek's own terms. "Should I get X?" really means "do you like me now that I like X?". Geeks typically don't decode short sentences, especially when the immediate meaning is simple among geeks. So we talk about the tech, when the normals are really talking about the people. Combine that with the common geek insecurity when talking about people, and it's no wonder these conversations go nowhere.
--
make install -not war
"Yeah, I hate complicated stuff. Finishing up my master's in EE damn near killed me, and you wouldn't believe how complicated THAT got. Of course, now I can get a real job that doesn't involve wearing a nametag."
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
My boyfriend got me a nice new soundcard for my birthday, and I gave him mass lovings for it. (But I got it to work with my Linux. A girl's gotta have her pride.)
Who do the women buy the tech gadgets for? More likely than not they are buying them for husbands/boyfriends/relatives/etc, I think the survey should be revamped to see the percentage of women that buy the tech gadgets for themselves.
I've been a long time (like over a year+) slashdot lurker, and this topic has so moved me to create an account and post.
I am a female, I have a network of four linux-loving computers, and comparatively, my boyfriend (bless his little lovely heart)... is largely computer illiterate. But I really need him at times to be taken seriously, both at stores and with phone tech support. I order all my computer parts online now. The one recent purchase I've made at a store, I became very hostile with the salesman at Best Buy who was treating me like a child, despite my repeated firm protestations of "I know exactly what I'm looking for, please back off already." He finally backed off only when my bf who had been in the game section turned the corner and asked, "Hon, have you found what you were looking for yet?" The attitude women reported in the article is very much obvious with tech support too. I've had harrowing experiences with tech support over a lemon laptop. Ironically, in all the months it took that to be straightened out, the only time I was taken seriously was by a woman tech support person (although a few years back I had a dead sound card, told the male tech support person exactly the problem and how I arrived at it, and he simply said, "I love people like you, we'll send the replacement out today"). Now, even when dealing with tech support I make my bf take the phone and he tells them what I say, because they tend to take him more seriously than me saying the exact same thing. Having me sitting next to him relaying my commentary rather than being on the phone myself makes that significant of a difference. And I resent it. I know as geeks we all hate dealing with tech support and pushy electronics store people... let me tell you, it's a thousand times worse and more insulting when you are a female and they treat you like a baby because of it. After dedicating so many years of my life to developing my computer skills, that treatment infuriates me. I seriously like to live by the philosophy that there is more difference within the sexes than between them. Unfortunately, that view is not held by most of the world... particularly men when it comes to women in technology.
espically when it has to do with vibrators for joysticks..;)
The lunatic is in my head
Who is using the electronic Women buy ? Is it the same as for the flower Men buy (i.e. : not for them but for their female companions)? Are they using the electronic they buy or do they gift it ?
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I read slashdot. I care about Linux and SCO issues. I build my own computers, link my PDA to the wireless network I've set up in my house, and argue kernels with men.
I DON'T watch anime, play Counterstrike, download pr0n, or try to out-class my fellow geeks by way of computing power or unnecessary bandwidth. These tend to be, though not always, hobbies of male geeks. I DO like jewelry, shopping for shoes, romance, clothes, cooking, chatting, and cute guys. Because of these traits, many people underestimate my technical knowledge.
One nice thing about the liberation of women is that I can appreciate technology without trying to be your typical male geek. I can go try on sixteen pairs of shoes, then come home and program my heart out.
I don't see that in many of these replies. What I see is that because we like to buy things other than technology, or because we like to use technology as a means to socialize or have fun (as with cell phones), we can't possibly be as tech-savvy as you slashdotters assume YOU are. I can see the brain waves now. "Oh, these women! They must be buying little TVs for their kitchen, pink vibrators, presents for their geeky boyfriends, or electronic beepy collars for their fuzzy kittens!" Why? Why can't you accept that we see technology just as you do? That we're out there looking for the newest video card or USB hub?
Watch out, guys, the boundaries of geekdom are expanding. Women are discovering the utter coolness of technology. We can afford it. We can buy it for ourselves. And we can understand how to use it.
Honestly, I'm embarassed. I thought the slashdot community was more enlightened than this.
..and wow, it was hard to train the MCSE guys I worked with to try listening to what they called "the ditzy secretaries" for a change. My tickets went down and my sector of 1500 computers+ was measurably quieter. All from listening and doing 5-15 minutes of training.
I currently shop online not just because the prices are better, but because I'm sick of dealing with the MCSE techs at Best Buy, CompUSA, etc, who think just because I'm there with my husband discussing specs, they need to contribute to the conversation. But to my husband's credit, he's good about laughing in their face and turning back to me when they are being obnoxious. I'm also the one walking up with the box to the cashier--little pet peeve of mine.
What -I- run at work:
Several iSeries mainframes
Several Suns
Several HP-UXs
Several AIXs
Several Linux
LOTS of Wintels
What we have (collectively) at home:
An AS400 (mine)
Several Suns
A DEC Alpha
A wireless network
Various PCs with various OS's
C64
Dunno, I can't say as I've ever felt like I was being treated like a moron just because I'm a chickie-boo. Not even when I ACTED like a dumb little chickie-boo doing undercover work to scope out the competition for the computer company I work for. OTOH, there have been several times I've wanted to throttle the shit out of some noodlehead at Circuit City, Best Buy, Nobody Beats The Wiz, etc. because they didn't know SHTML from shinola...