Internet Mogal

I glanced over an article in Advertising Age talking about the online behavior patterns of women. It got me thinking for the next hour or so. What do women want? Can our motivations and desires be measured by our online behavior patterns? I am a women and I live my professional life online. Should my Internet activity be used to broad scale the norm for women across the board?

I’ve always considered myself to be the exception of the average woman. I have an impulse control problem, thus my constantly clicking away to banner ads and websites not directly related to my job. What can I say, I get bored easily. I have computer ADD. I look at many of the websites “tailored” for women and I don’t frequent them often. I don’t shop online as much as the next chick. I know about most of the women websites because my job is to know what’s going on in the Internet realm, not because I have a shopping addiction to shoes. Maybe I should check “male” when filling out online market research polls. Sometimes I feel like I think more like a guy than a girl. Then it hit me, one of my oh-so-frequent “Aha” moments. Why do I feel bad about not being the typical “chick”?

I love my job. I work with a lot of guys and I’m glad I do because they cut the crap out of our working relationships. No drama, no personalizing, no “why can’t we be friends too” issues. I’d like to think that maybe I represent a different type of woman, one that doesn’t have to apologize for being a girl with a guy’s mind. Granted, when you see my blog for the first time it’s pretty HARD to disguise that I’m a chick, and a girlie chick at that. I was conflicted with the design because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go with a whimsical girlie motif. I’ve designed websites before and for my business and projects I’m always told to stay away from pink or anything that will gender-fy my online presence. If I wanted to appeal to guys as well I should remain “neutral.”

But why?

When I think about what women want, I think of me and about what I want.

• I want to not have to apologize for being a girl but still be able to play with the boys.
• I want to not have to worry about women hating on me because of that.
• I want to be able to express my thoughts and feelings and not have to worry about them being used against me to help compensate for their overblown egos and insecurities.

How do these “wants” translate into online behavior patterns? Maybe I’m checking out Wired instead of Glam. Or perhaps I pay more attention to articles about SEO than I do to the numerous Daily Candy emails I have yet to open. I’m not saying I don’t connect with that feminine community.

I’m just simply asking how do we quantify the different types of women that use the Internet for different purposes because I think at the end of the day all women want is to not be compartmentalized.