The Online Feminine Mystique: Developing a Research Agenda for Women's Use of Social Media

When the Internet was first commercialized and commonly utilized, men numerically dominated Internet use (Actman, 1995 and Johns, 1997). Over time, the population of Internet users has normalized and increasingly women are using the Internet at the same rate as men. This raises societal questions. Is social media conditioned to be more ‘female-dominated’ due to the focus on social aspects, traditionally seen as more feminine? This introductory chapter explores the technology use of women. Taking a perspective of providing a background, first, the literature related to women and technology and the dominant theoretical underpinnings is discussed. Then the authors investigate conditioning of women in careers, lifestyles and general technology use. This discussion of the academic literature is then reinforced through an analysis of industry based data, to understand how women are utilizing technology. The chapter concludes with an agenda for further research into the use of technology by women.