Home is where you hang your @: Australian women on the net

Donell Holloway and Lelia GreenEdith Cowan University School of Communications and Multimediad.holloway@ecu.edu.au l.green@ecu.edu.au

Note:The research reported here is funded by an Australian Research Council DiscoveryGrant on which Lelia Green and Robyn Quin are Chief Investigators. As well as firstauthor of this paper, Donell Holloway works on the project as a Research Assistant(principally in the area of face to face ethnographic data collection). All participantsare staff at Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA.

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Home is where you hang your @: Australian women on the net

Abstract

This article argues that the emergence and growth of the domestic computer andInternet connectivity within Australian homes has important implications for socialresearch, and particularly for analysis of the socio-cultural relevance of the Internetfor women and the family. Women are incorporating the Internet into their everydaylives in a manner similar to that previously seen with the telephone, which, in manyways, has “increased women’s access to each other and the outside world…[and]improved the quality of women’s home lives”(Wajcman, 1991, p. 105). Just as thetelephone can be viewed as a women-friendly technology (Gillard, Bow, & Wale,1994), women seem to have embraced and feminised the Internet in their owndistinctly female manner.

The Internet has generally been said to affect everyday interaction andcommunication by either decreasing sociability – where it may draw people awayfrom other types of social engagement through the provision of individualentertainment and information facilities (Holmes, 1997, p. 32), or transformingcommunity – by allowing for expedient and economical communication withcommunities of shared interest from widespread locations previously difficult toengage with (Wellman, Quan-Haase, Boase, & Chen, 2002, p. 5). However, the recentfeminisation of the Internet provides us with a new understanding of the Internet as asupplement to everyday community and sociability – an adjunct to existing face-to-face social relationships. Under this model, personal interests and civic engagementare not diminished, but rather enhanced, through the use of the family Internet bymany women.

Australian women’s engagement with the Internet has rapidly increased over the lastfew years with similar participation rates for women and men. Dale Spender (1995)anticipated this potential - for the Internet to become a women’s technology.

Computers are for nattering on the net. A computer connected to theinformation superhighway is more like a telephone (with the added benefitof pictures and text) than it is like an adding machine. Like the telephone,the connected computer is just crying out for women to use it (p. 192).

Drawing on illustrative material from face-to-face interviews with Western Australianfamilies we will show that most of the families we have researched incorporate (use)the domestic Internet as an adjunct to existing social relationships - as well as toaugment enjoyment of their own interests and priorities. Women in this study don’tseem to be braving out the gendered exclusion and/or harassment involved in manymale dominated sites (Spender, 1995) but rather carving their own more selectivepathways on the Internet. This takes a variety of forms ranging from teenagers’extensive use of MSN instant messaging (with existing offline friendship groups); sitesdedicated to women’s agendas, priorities and interests; to women’s use of email tokeep connected with friends and family. We will also argue that many women haveappropriated and incorporated this technology as their own, engaging intelecommunications practices which fulfil their own specific social and familial needsand desires; and that women have become self-determining users of the Internet,

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feminising this technology by incorporating the Internet for both relational andfunctional purposes and in a manner different from men.

Early findings from this study suggest that the family Internet, as incorporated andfeminised in many homes, seems to supplement the pre-existing notion of sociabilityand community – rather than diminish or transform it. Women in this study tend todisplay their own unique patterns of use, allowing for a feminised cruise along theinformation superhighway. Their online communication often mirrors their face-to-face relationships and “the online content that women normally look at reallyprovides a map of [their] offline interests and priorities”(Axelrod, 2000).

Introduction

It is imperative that women become involved in the cyber-community in the same numbers and on the same terms as men. (Itis just as important that Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders,and other marginalised groups, be fairly represented in the newmedium.) There is no other way of ensuring that wisdom orknowledge can emerge from all the masses of information and datathat are currently being produced (Spender, 1995, p.xxv).

These days Australian women are using the Internet in similar numbers to Australian

men (Nielsen//NetRatings, 2002b). This seems, in part, related to the emergence and

growth of the domestic computer and Internet connectivity within Australian homes.

In some ways the domestic Internet makes possible more self directed exploration and

use of the Internet by women and other family members, as opposed Internet use at

work or school. This paper argues that many women’s use of the Internet

(particularly those uses carried out from home and not directly related to work or

study) is distinctly different from that of most men, both in the way they use the

Internet to communicate with others and the manner and purpose of their information

acquisition.

Women are choosing their own pathways for nattering on the net, tending to reinforce

their existing social networks, which usually consist of offline friends and family.

They are also task-oriented when they get on the Internet, and inclined to use the

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Internet for purposeful activities that are closely aligned with their everyday (offline)

lives and priorities. These offline interests or priorities include family/household-

oriented tasks and interests, hobbies and pastimes from their ‘real’ lives (as opposed

to new interests engendered by their ‘virtual’ interactions).

Women in this study do not seem to be interested in participating in larger cyber-

communities, unless these directly relate to their offline lives. They are not braving

out the gendered exclusion and/or harassment that Spender (1995) saw as implicit in

many male dominated sites but rather carving out their own selective pathways on the

Internet. On the basis of our research we suggest that, although women are involved

in using the Internet in the same numbers as men, their feminised pathways reflect a

splintered, feminised community which is, in itself, potentially marginalised from the

mainstream (original/masculine-perspective) cyber-community.

Many women’s Internet pathways seem limited to social networks which connect

them with existing family and friends, and Internet sites which address women’s

gendered roles in the home – family tasks as well as women’s pursuits and interests.

Recent net ratings suggest that the number of sites visited (and dominated) by women

is comparatively small compared to men (Nielsen//NetRatings, 2002b). This tends to

support the notion that women’s Internet pathways are relatively limited to

connections they make for themselves, rather than visiting sites created for

consumption. Thus, despite the fact that women are online in similar numbers to men

(Nielsen//NetRatings, 2002b), they seem to be doing very different things there.

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The Internet has generally been said to affect everyday interaction and communication

by either decreasing sociability – where it may draw people away from other types of

social engagement through the provision of individual entertainment and information

facilities (Holmes, 1997, p. 32); or by transforming community – allowing for

expedient and economical communication with people who share interests but who

are dispersed over widespread locations, and previously difficult to engage with

(Wellman et al., 2002, p. 5). However, the construction of a feminised Internet,

evident in the stories of the Australian women contributing to our research findings,

provides us with a new understanding of the Internet as a supplement to everyday

community and sociability – an adjunct to existing face-to-face social relationships

and a strengthener of prior engagements with community. Under this model, personal

interests and community engagement are not diminished, but rather enhanced, through

the use of the family Internet by many women. This model, where the Internet

operates to increase sociability (and enhance family and social community interaction

in the real world) is encouraging for those worried about the social consequences of

Internet use. Nonetheless, this domestic focus by women (with families) may also

limit their full engagement in cyber discussion and decision-making in that they may

be opting out of robust discussions and cyber-interactions with men.

This paper is written in the context of a project entitled Family Internet: theorising

domestic Internet consumption, production and use within Australian Families –

funded by an ARC-Discovery Grant. The project investigates Internet use within

Australian households with specific reference to families with school-aged children,

and explores how individual family members make sense of their family’s

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engagement with the Internet. It investigates the ways in which the Internet is

becoming integrated within Australian family life.

Research data on gender and the Internet seems somewhat limited to commercial

market analysis aimed at capturing data regarding ‘consumer behaviour’-- frequency

of use, top sites etc. Such a commercially-driven perspective leads to some insights

into women’s sensibilities and priorities when using the net. This paper however,

like some others (Singh, 2001; van.Zoonen, 2002; Wellman et al., 2002), is the result

of a more qualitative research process, where interviewees are engaged in in-depth

conversational interviews allowing for a more comprehensive discussion of their

Internet lives, and is less likely to privilege commercially-driven interaction.

Although the research is a work in progress, and data collection continues, this paper

analyses interviews with 27 female participants and focuses on the Internet pathways

taken by female family members, mothers (single and partnered and mostly in their

30’s and 40’s) and their pre teen and teen daughters.

Women nattering on the net

The manner in which the Internet has been taken up in the family home is similar to

that which marked the domestication of the telephone, but at a faster rate. Like the

phone, the Internet begins as a male-dominated technology and then becomes evenly

used by both genders (Marvin, 1988; Singh, 2001; Spender, 1995). Telephones were

initially valued as functionary workplace tools and women were positioned as

technologically ignorant and frivolous users of the phone (for a culturally-bound

example of this construction, see Umble (1992)). However, with the telephone’s

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subsequent entry into the private sphere and its transposition as a domestic

technology, women’s use of the telephone grew to the point where it can now be

viewed as a femininised communication technology. As “ a technology becomes

domesticated and feminised, gender differences are seen in the use of the technology

rather than access” (Singh, 2001, p. 396). When we argue that Australian women’s

use of the Internet has become feminised, we are arguing that men and women have

equivalent access to the Internet but tend to use it differently when given the freedom

to determine their own usage patterns (e.g. when not actively engaged in work or

study tasks).

Australian women’s engagement with the Internet has increased rapidly over the last

few years with usage rates clearly indicating similar participation rates for women and

men (although the quality of Internet access between men and women may be

disparate, with new technologies such as ADSL and wireless connectivity becoming

prevalent for those with greater access to socio-economic capital). Nonetheless, as

predicted by Spender (1995, p.192), women participants in this study are nattering on

the net, especially through their email accounts. They are using these natterings to

keep in contact, and socialise, with family and friends. They have found that they like

to use email because in many circumstances it is more efficient than other forms of

communication. Some even find themselves more comfortable with using email than

the phone, both in the way email eliminates the need to coordinate chat times with

their friends and family (through asynchronicity) and as a mode of considered

(potentially reflective) communication. Rose (42) explains how she is more

comfortable using email, but some friends and family members prefer to hear her

voice on the telephone.

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I enjoy it [email] more. I enjoy it more [than the telephone] becauseI can talk to people when I've got time and I know that they canreply to me when they've got time but other people seem to say, ‘Iknow you sent me an email but I want to speak to you. I prefer tospeak’: So I actually, I'm very happy just to do it online whereasother people don't feel so comfortable. So I would happily replaceall my telephone calls with email. (Rose, personal communication,2003).

Women tend to use email more frequently than men to communicate with family and

friends (Boneva, Kraut, & Frohlich, 2001) and appear to have personalized this

technology with more relationally focussed communication. Women use email to

sustain (and enjoy) contact with distant family members and friends. This appears to

be a very significant element of these women’s Internet worlds. Green (2002) argues

that these days:

the support provided historically by the extended family for the workingmother has tailed off: sometimes due to the geographical distance of mothers,aunts, sisters; but also because women in the extended family are increasinglyin paid work themselves. The burgeoning number of childcare places, after-school and vacation programmes, and the advent of family responsibilitiesleave and family friendly workplaces are the most obvious signs of theincreasing lack of informal supports (p. 213).

The Internet and email can help restore the sense of emotional connectedness, even

while work commitments and geography get in the way of physical co-presence.

Communicating with children was an important use for those mothers whose children

had left home, either temporarily or on a more permanent basis. Donna (below) has a

son in the armed forces.

When Lesley [son] was looking at houses to buy in the east, I'd beon the Internet having a look as well to see what was on sale.‘Lesley, have you looked at this one at such and such an agent?’. SoI'm on the west coast and he's on the east coast, [I’m] house-huntingfor him over there…. Now it's a [my] screensaver, his little house.It's awesome, so that kind of thing's really neat, to be able to bringfamily that are far away closer (Donna, personal communication,2003).

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The maintenance of extended family networks is a high priority for many of these

women, especially those with family dispersed in other states or countries. In some

cases such networks include more mature (elderly) relatives who are participating

fully in family networks online. In a few cases grandparents are being encouraged to

go online with gentle coercion and varied success.

Yeah I don’t think she’s [speaker’s mother] got as much out of it aswhat she thought because she didn’t want to purposefully go on theInternet and Gavin’s parents [speaker’s in-laws] are hooking up….because their daughter’s in New Zealand and all their cousins are inSweden and England and they’re all on the Internet as we are. And[because] they’re in Albany, they’ve [been] encouraged to go on theInternet so they can keep that sort of contact up (Gale, personalcommunication, 2003).

These instances suggest that some women, in an attempt to fulfil their social (and

gendered) responsibilities to their parents and parents-in-law are, at times, attempting

to coopt Internet technologies, particularly email, to help facilitate ongoing

communication and support for their parents’ generation. Green (2002) describes the

unpaid work many women undertake within the family and suggests that many baby

boomer women are about to experience, or are experiencing, a triple shift in their

family responsibilities. This triple shift describes the situation where “women are

responsible for their partner and self, their children and their elder family members”

(p. 216). Now it seems that email may help resolve the communication needs of the

often-fractured extended family.

This study, and other US-based research projects, indicate that women are fully

utilising the Internet to maintain relationships with family and friends (Boneva &

Kraut, 2002; Boneva et al., 2001). However, at this stage it is uncertain whether

women’s use of information and communication technologies (ICT’s), such as the

Internet, is altering relationship dynamics within the extended family. It is equally

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unclear whether such Internet-based communication is generally a substitute for

phone calls and letters to distant friends and family members or a supplement to these.

Nonetheless, there seems to be a general perception among women with domestic

Internet access that email is more effective and efficient than the telephone (which is

rather costly), and than letter writing (which is too slow). These possible changes in

communication patterns warrant further research.

Some women in this study indicated that email allows for different modes or styles of

communication which can be both liberating and problematic at the same time.

Email can add to a feeling of detachment between people when compared to

telephone conversations. However, the private nature of email accounts can also

allow for a sense of privacy and the expression of emotion. The asynchronicity of

email interaction is very convenient for many busy people. Nonetheless, the speed at

which one can write and send an email (compared to letter writing) may also lend

itself to less thoughtful exchanges between people.

Donna (40+) recalls the email communication she had with her ex husband during the

breakdown of their marriage.

Writing on the Internet has that sort of anonymity that talking on thephone doesn't, like writing letters to and fro to people, but it's alsoimmediate so you [have to] be careful what you say because you cansay the wrong thing and then ‘Bam!’ (Donna, personalcommunication, 2003).

Women tend to maintain larger personal networks than men, and tend to maintain

more distant friendships through their use of email (Boneva et al., 2001; Cohen,

2001). Nadia (30+), came to live in Australia from France ten years ago and finds

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email a much more efficient way of keeping in contact with her friends in France. She

originally sent letters back home but now prefers to email.

If I send a letter, I feel like I can't just send [one] page. Then I reallyfeel like I have to write a letter, like three or four pages and if I havesome photos, put some photos in. But on the Internet, I say ‘hi, howare you. Just been down to the beach. It’s been wonderful. Havingthis for tea. What are you eating?’ And I don't feel like I've spent$1.80 on stamps. So it's great for this spontaneous kind of thing….Ido communicate with France, with my friends. Not extensively buthere and there, I send an email. I go online and then I usually sendeverybody an email quickly when I've got a couple of hours (Nadia,personal communication, 2003).

Email is not limited to self-authored letters or notes. Other forms of emails can also

be used to indicate social connectedness. ‘Boilerplate messages’ (prefabricated

messages forwarded on from friend to friend) such as jokes, stories, sayings,

humorous photographs, e-cards and pointers to interesting web sites, are used

extensively by some of the women and men in this study and may “serve to remind

partners [and friends] of each others’ existence and as such preserve a relationship as

a potential resource for companionship, advice, or social support at some later time”

(Boneva & Kraut, 2002, p. 393). We would argue that boilerplate messages may do

more than preserve a relationship. They may also consolidate friendships further and

build cohesion between friends through reiteration and sharing enjoyment of mutual

interests and sensibilities.

Another way in which some women in this study ‘natter on the net’ is through their

participation in ‘community of interest’ groups. In this context, communities of

interest involve an interacting population of individuals communicating via the

Internet. What seems noteworthy about these women’s online communities of interest

is that they tend to mirror the women’s offline interests; their everyday concerns,

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passions and hobbies. These communities of interest can range from small groups of

individuals who are known to each other (using email to communicate about an

interest in common such as book clubs, and hiking groups) to women’s participation

in large networks of common – or community-wide – interest. These community-

wide networks are usually representative of those that address women’s agendas and

interest such as parenting, health or genealogy. For instance, Rebecca (40+) who

belongs to a local family history society, extended her interest in genealogy by going

online. She helps edits the society’s newsletter and now encourages others to go

online.

I help out with the local genealogy society…. I've said to people, ifyou go into [this] or if you go into that then.... you could find thisout or you could find that out. There's a lot of stuff now on theInternet you could use (Rebecca, personal communication, 2003).

Within this study, the smaller women’s groups that natter on the net are set up by the

members themselves and are not necessarily established as an online community of

interest but rather an extension of existing interest groups located in the face-to-face

world. In other words, where there is an existing community of interest offline, the

participants might utilise the Internet to maintain and perhaps extend their community

of interest. In one instance a very small group of women carry out online research

and plan extensive, friendship-affirming bush walking trips via email. Another

example involves a small patchwork group.

I've also got a group of friends and we all stitch and we put togetherdifferent little programs…. patchwork and when we go to the meettogether and if anyone's got any tips or they might even write about[it]… all that sort of communication (Gail, personal communication,2003).

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Some women extend these interests to create links with other women in different

situations and across different cultures. For example, the Quilt for refugees program at

http://quilt_for_refugees.tripod.com details quilting which serves a political and

humanitarian purpose as well as developing networks between the women involved.

Additionally, the web is used to promote the perspectives of the participants, and to

encourage others to join:

We use quilts as a means of delivering a message throughout thecommunity. Refugees, particularly children and families should notbe subject to detention. We hope that the stories depicted in thequilts inspire people to join with us in expressing ourconcerns…"Quilts like diaries, are an accumulation of bits andpieces of the maker's life, a respository of ideas, hopes and feelings"- Roderick Kirocofe, Historian of Quilting (Quilt.for.refugees,2003).

In other instances health concerns have led women to participate in an online

community of interest. In the following case, a serious health issue within the family

became the catalyst for joining a community of interest, which provides relevant

support and information. This support group is housed in a bricks-and-mortar

location but also encourages members to network online.

We belong to the Cancer Support Association in Cannington whichis like a referral centre almost where you can go and accessinformation….They actually have a wonderful set-up there. [Theyhave a] library and they have talks and they have meditation andyoga and different types of facilities. But they also encouragepeople to learn how to use the Internet and computer to find outtheir own information. So they have a website and you can go intothe website and you can go and search around things. You can put inyour symptoms, that type of thing and find other people's similarproblems. So they encourage people to network throughout theworld and to network amongst other West Australians (Rose,personal communication, 2003).

In this case, and others, it seems that a major life moment within the family can be the

catalyst for women to start engaging with the Internet.

So a lot of people who would use the computer like myself havegone from no use at all to frequent use. There would be a lot of

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people at the Cancer Support Association, members there [who]would be similar, who would have gone from not using it at all tousing it a lot (Rose, personal communication, 2003).

Thus some women use the Internet as a source of information and support in their

care-giving role as partner or parent, and to get support for themselves as they manage

the changing demands and dynamics in their family group.

In brief, it can be said that women in this study are more inclined to use their (freely

determined) Internet time to keep in touch with family members and friends. From

the interviews given they seem less likely to use Internet chat and discussion facilities

that are open to the general public. Women tend to use email to carry out the

relatively gendered role of family relationship maintenance and to participate in

communities of interest where these have a direct association with their everyday

lives.

The chatters

While nearly all Australian Internet users use email, only thirty percent use instant

messaging (Nielsen//NetRatings, 2002a). Instant messaging is the use of Internet

technology to send written messages that are received in real time: synchronous

communication. This activity differs from Internet Relay Chat (participating in chat

rooms) in that instant messaging users can select (or invite) those they want to chat

with, and block messages from others. ICQ is an example of such a service (ICQ,

2003). With instant messaging you can also have conversations with more than one

person at a time.

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Most of the teenage girls who were interviewed in this study spent a lot of their online

time instant messaging with friends. All their friends use MSN Messenger and have

(Buddy) lists of friends who they permit on their messaging services. The Buddy lists

of the girls in this study comprise, almost exclusively, of existing offline friends from

school, sport or the neighbourhood. When asked about the composition of her own

MSN Messenger group Nadine (14) reports that she chats with friends from school,

although the occasional stranger gets let in – usually for a brief chat.

Most of it [is with friends]. Some people you just meet [online] andthen just go off and talk with them but they usually get blown[blocked] ’cause you don’t really have anything to talk with aboutwith them. So we talk to most of our friends (Nadine, personalcommunication, 2003).

The composition of these groups (with existing offline friends) is reminiscent of

teenage girls’ use of the telephone (in their mother’s generation) where much time

was spent on the phone chatting with existing girlfriends and the odd boy – usually

from school. Nadine, above, has also visited Internet chat rooms but finds the sexual

content (and, sometimes, harassment) uncomfortable. “They go on about stuff that

you don’t really want to talk about and it’s just ‘No, I don’t think so’” (Nadine,

personal communication, 2003). Spender (1995) suggested that women who talk to

women online are “constantly threatened by male interruption and overwhelmtion

[sic]. This is why women go to extraordinary lengths to set up women-only networks”

(p. 237).

It seems that by choosing MSN Messenger, or similar instant messenger services,

these girls are setting up their own networks within which they are able to feel more

comfortable (chatting within their own comfort zone with known and trusted friends).

Their parents are also more likely to be comfortable with instant messaging, as their

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children are usually socialising with known friends. Parents (and teenage girls) can

avoid the gendered harassment, unsavoury content and/or possible dangers of chat

room discussions by choosing instant messaging. This is not to say that parents are

altogether happy with their teenagers’ instant messaging. As with telephone use, they

are likely to be concerned about their daughters’ excessive use of this technology.

It is worth noting that, within the scope of this study, extensive use of MSN

Messenger seemed limited to girls in their early adolescence. The few 17 and 18 year

olds who were interviewed described themselves as having grown out of it

(messaging). These older teenagers often have more independence, money and

mobility and are less likely to be as reliant on the media technologies available at

home for entertainment or communicating with friends. Sonia (18) describes, in her

own succinct manner, the reasons she is no longer an instant messager: “Phased out. I

had other things to do. Went out. Didn’t have time. Couldn’t be bothered” (Sonia,

personal communication, 2003).

The girls and young women in the study did venture beyond the closed groups of their

instant messenger circles for school related activities and to follow their own offline

interests. Adele (14) downloads music and visits the Cleo and Dolly sites. With a

passion for horses, Cassie (11) enjoys sharing her interest in horses with other

girlfriends.

Another friend's got a games site about horses and you go onto itand you can buy horses and you can play with them and everythingand that's really interesting. We go on that at her house and my otherfriends just go on it (Cassie, personal communication, 2003).

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Like their mothers, the teenage girls in this study prefer to choose their own online

social networks. However, unlike their mothers these girls are very comfortable with

instant messaging. The few mothers who have themselves tried online messaging or

chat, do not seem to be comfortable with it1. “Yeah I just found it annoying”

(Rosemary, personal communication, 2003)

Spender’s (1995) prediction, that the Internet is potentially a feminine technology in

ways similar to the telephone, is highlighted by the uses made of it by teenage girls

within this study, and their extensive use of instant messaging to socialise with

friends. There have been a number of scare stories about unsupervised children and

teenagers being ‘at risk’ on the Internet (Valentine, Holloway, & Bingham, 2000, pp.

161-2). However, socialising in a ‘safe environment’ with known friends seems to be

the preferred activity undertaken by the girls in this study. Thus neither the teenage

girls, nor their mothers, seem to be braving out the gendered exclusion and/or

harassment that Spender perceived as integral to many male dominated sites (Spender,

1995, pp. 193-222).

Getting things done

From our study, women also seem to be more task oriented than men when they get

on the Internet, tending to use the Internet for purposeful activities that are closely

aligned with their everyday (offline) lives2. These comprise family/household

orientated tasks including nurturing and helping others, and personal hobbies and

1 One mother (35), previously a heavy MUDS user, was the exception. She participates in chat roomswith virtual friends and instant messages with offline friends.2 We will be completing a paper relating to ‘Men on the Internet’ in the next phase of our writing up ofresearch findings.

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pastimes closely aligned with offline interests and pursuits. Singh’s (2001) study of

urban and rural Australian women has found that “women are more likely to use the

Internet when is serves as a tool for activities, rather than something to play with or

master” (pp. 412-3). Women in this study also indicated that they value the functional

aspects of Internet use.

I just think it's a great tool and a great mechanism but I consider it asan addition to normal life, I don't see it as replacing anythingparticularly. I just see it as an add-on. For me anyway (Lynette,personal communication, 2003).

Marketing research also indicates that women are going online to get things done.

Females are increasingly becoming a force to be reckoned with andthey seem to be spending a large amount of constructive time online….Yet our data suggests that marketers have not been effectivelyusing the Internet to reach out to females specifically, through siteswith strong lifestyle, family or female oriented content(Nielsen//NetRatings, 2002b).

A probable reason for marketers’ difficulties in capturing this elusive female Internet

audience is that commercial women’s sites may elicit a degree of resistance from

women – perhaps a backlash against their overly commercial and/or American

emphasis. These women are less likely to participate in someone else’s idea of

lifestyle, family or female orientated content – particularly if those ideas come from

another nation and/or culture.

Yeah, the one thing I don't like about the Internet. It's American.Everything. All the information you get, it's - American, all thespam, everything. To find Australian sites is a lot more [difficult](Amy, personal communication, 2003).

Despite this tendency to resist overly commercial or American sites, the women in

this study do go online to get specific family orientated tasks done. They seek out

online content that mirrors their offline family interests. These tasks range from

information searching for their children’s research projects, recipes, health and travel

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information for themselves and their family, to one-off tasks - for instance looking up

the rules for a board game, spot removal tips for tomato sauce stains or a yellow pages

search. Some of the women in this study pay their bills online and research consumer

products. Interestingly, these women avoid purchasing goods and services online as

they are either not confident about the reliability of online financial transactions or

they prefer to see, in real life, what they are getting.

Other tasks the women in this study go online for are associated with personal

interests and pursuits. These women tend to seek out online content that mirrors their

offline interests and pursuits. The women in this study seek out information about

interests such as genealogy searches and craft information. The teenage girls in this

study seem more interested in music, fan sites and other entertainment sites.

Similarly, Donna (40+) enjoys checking out movie reviews and times before hitting

the local cinema.

Women, and girls are going online to access information and entertainment sites

which are directly related to their everyday lives – be it family and household tasks,

leisure pursuits or personal passions. These pursuits are often limited to sites that can

be described as women’s agenda and interests sites and, although not the exclusive

domain of women, are encouraging women to women (or like minded men)

networking. On the other hand, women’s agendas and female interests sites may be

limiting women’s engagement with mainstream (original/masculine-perspective)

cyber-community providing no real alternative points-of-view, or challenges, to a

particularly male worldview evident elsewhere on the Web

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Conclusion

This paper is the result of interviews with women with families, and their daughters,

in urban and regional Western Australia. The findings in this study are subject to the

limitations of our study size, and our locational base, and may be challenged by the

completion of the remaining research. However, the research project has to date

explored women’s Internet use in a more in-depth or qualitative manner than typically

allowed in commercial research models, providing for a richer understanding of the

pathways women are making on the Internet. From this we can say that women who

use the Internet value it, and utilise the technology in a purposeful, task-oriented

manner for reasons often related to their family and friends as well as other offline

priorities and interests. Mothers prefer to limit their nattering on the net to email

communication with known friends and family while their daughters are inclined to

use instant messaging – again with known friends.

Dale Spender’s (1995) call for women to natter on the net seems to have been realised

with men and women online in comparable numbers. However, women are choosing

to create tailored and selective pathways, which often limit their nattering to email

and a few specific sites. This is evidenced by the many examples given by women

participating in this study, and by recent net rating figures, which indicate that “the

number of sites dominated by female audiences is [still] relatively small compared

with sites with a predominantly male audience” (Nielsen//NetRatings, 2002b).

Consequently women’s feminised pathways reflect a splintered, feminised community

which is, in itself, potentially marginalised from the mainstream (original/masculine-

perspective) cyber-community.

21

A very distorted view of the world is created when only one socialgroup, with one set of social experiences pronounces how it will befor all …. [therefore] it is imperative that women become involvedin cyber-community in the same numbers and on the same terms asmen (Spender, 1995, xxv-xxvi).

We feel that it is important to note here that further disparity may be caused by

differential access to the latest Internet technologies between men and women.

Women are less likely to download the all singing, all dancing, ADSL-requiring user-

sites because it’s likely that women are less able than men in the domestic context to

access the Internet using ADSL/wireless/top of the range equipment etc. Therefore,

with the advent of ADSL and wireless connections and laptops, the number of men

and women online may be similar, but the cost and quality of access in that online

engagement may be different. This seems particularly so for single mothers in this

study who have fewer resources and are therefore less able to update with any

frequency.

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