Women Buy More Tech Than Men 645
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."
You guys laugh, but this doesn't surprise me (Score:2, Insightful)
Tom Peters is right! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you have not done so yet, get a woman in your product design team.
What? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You guys laugh, but this doesn't surprise me (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Women spend more money on tech? (Score:4, Insightful)
Lego's new strategy (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:It may come as a shock.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Ignorance Is Bliss (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Stupid Statistics (Score:3, Insightful)
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?
Companies changed strategy: Products for kitchen.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:Unbelievable (Score:5, Insightful)
You do the math
Very telling... (Score:4, Insightful)
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?
blabla (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
What really pisses me off... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Sadly so (Score:5, Insightful)
They are. You are enabling their behavior. You could fire them, or you could just let them screw up and refuse to pay them, or most effectively, chew them out for ignoring your wife and refuse to repeat it. If they want it repeated, let her repeat it.
How you define tech (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What? (Score:2, Insightful)
Suddenly the story starts to make sense
Re:What really pisses me off... (Score:5, Insightful)
Show them your cognitive abilities by calling for the manager and pointing out that he's just lost a customer due to the reptile's inept turn of phrase.
I love it when a sterotype bites someone on the ass.
Re:What really pisses me off... (Score:2, Insightful)
-Alex(andra)
Re:Stereotypes... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's if they're wrong. Exceptions don't disprove stereotypes -- they are noteworthy because they are exceptional.
Sexism ahoy! (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
men know too many clueless women (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Women buy more tech FOR men (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Unbelievable (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What really pisses me off... (Score:4, Insightful)
And yes, I've been (and still am) in management, I've done the salesfloor (seven years in retail, three in industrial).
The way to encourage staff(remember, their actions reflect on the company)to keep up this sort of attitude is to not give feedback. Personally, (no suprise) I welcome feedback from my customers.
Do you really think this sales staff member realized the error of his ways that night? Or that she might mention it in a wider setting (like this one)?
Re:Radio Shack data is wrong. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Yeah, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I my world a gift giver has two options.
1) Get me something electronic.
2) Get me gift certificate to an electronic store.
Re:that tells me (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm the kind of person who will pay a little more to know that if the part is defective I can return it without too much fuss. That, and by the time I get the $5 back by rebate it's taken about 2 hours of my time. Not worth it.
Re:Tom Peters is right! (Score:2, Insightful)
I imagine that this anecdote is true of most female buyers, they don't want 'female geared' technology- espically if 'female geared' is advertiser speak for 'cheaper and less durable, but prettier looking'- they want devices that will make them able to do projects faster and easier- and that's what power tools and 'tech' in the home improvment catagory allready is!
My Response (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
It's called Christmas shopping (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What really pisses me off... (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunate double-bind for the female shopper, though. Whether she snaps at him or takes it to his boss, she's just a "bitch". A guy calls the man out and he's standing up for himself.
75% negative reaction? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Tom Peters is right! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Long live masculinity (Score:3, Insightful)
'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.
Re:makes sense (Score:3, Insightful)
More primitive types of high heels were used widely in ancient Egypt, classical Greece, and medieval Japan. For more details see this article [maxheels.de].
The pushup bra was invented by a man-Howard Hughes commissioned a team of engineers [yvonnesplace.net] 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 [lipmagazine.org] and here [sexforwomen.net].
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
Re:Sadly so (Score:4, Insightful)
Stereotyping, or prejudice, as you're describing it, isn't the same as the situation the parent was describing.
Assuming that someone speaks English in a predominantly-English speaking area/country/store/whatever is a reasonable prejudice (in the classic sense of the word). It is not reasonable to ask each person what language they want to use before using it. It is also reasonable to treat people who walk into your store as potential customers, and probably reasonable to treat strangers on a dark street with some caution.
On the other hand, failing to hear someone because of what they look like is a non-functional prejudice. It's not that they *ask* him and not his wife because they assume he will know and she won't. It's that she *tells* them something and they simply ignore it until he repeats it. It's like assuming that someone does *not* speak English because they look Asian, and not noticing when they talk to you in a perfect American accent.
women ARE generally less competent than men when it comes to construction.
Based on...? When it comes to how they want a house extension to work, women usually have a *much* better idea of what will work for the family than men do. They spend more time in the house and have to use a greater percentage of it. Most men have no experience with construction, and sometimes will *pretend* to understand or know things they don't to protect a macho idea that they're supposed to know this thing.
They discriminate as a matter of efficiency and accuracy not to serve their egos.
It is not more efficient to have to get instructions twice, the second time from someone who is not there in front of you.
Re:I see this as a temporary problem (Score:3, Insightful)
*If* someone offers an alternative. In a world where 1% of female respondents think that electronic products are actually geared toward them, this probably means that 1% of women want the same things from products that the men in the focus groups do, and that no one is trying to sell women any electronics.
You can't choose an alternative that doesn't exist. Yes, Airport Honda lost my business by ignoring me when I walked in and barely responding when I asked anything, and Santa Monica Honda gained a customer for life by greeting me at the door and talking to *me*, the person asking the questions, instead of my then-fiance. But what if every Honda dealer within a reasonable distance of where I lived had treated me the same way? What would I have done then? No one else was offering the car I wanted. Instead, I probably would have done my best to brazen it out with the most convenient location, using my SO as a mouthpiece when absolutely necessary. Which is what a lot of women end up doing with a lot of different types of business.
Geeks are "normal", normals are weird (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the REAL question is... (Score:2, Insightful)
This is the ONLY time I really need my bf... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Nope, it'll do (Score:2, Insightful)
It drives me fucking nuts when I don't have enough information to find the actual study. I don't trust some motherfucker at CNN to read the report better than I can read it myself.
Hardly unexpected. (Score:2, Insightful)
Women were responsible for 57% of the money spent on consumer electronics (whatever that really means)
It's "common knowledge" that women do 80% of the shopping.
Hardly seems surprising to me.
What I want to know is what were the questions asked in the survey, what did they consider to be consumer electronics, and who and when they called. Results like this have a tendency to unravel when you start looking at the method of polling and the questions asked.
Anyone have access to the CE website and care to post the plain-text study document here?
Re:This is the ONLY time I really need my bf... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't be offended. Nobody is taken seriously by tech support. {sigh} If only I were kidding...
Being a man, and having a rather deep voice so as to be obviously male, I'm still not taken seriously. Big companies always want to pass the buck, etc. I take it with a grain of salt and occasionally I get someone understanding, compassionate, and at that moment not worried about their CST or daily rating or up-coming performance review or "Is the prick supervisor listening in on calls today?" who leaves the script alone and actually helps me. No, women in my experience don't tend to be more compassionate than men. They're all drones. :/
Regarding your other experiences, I find that saddening. I treat all customers the same; I'm there to ascertain their needs, sell them what they need, and a little bit of what I can get away with. If any customer, regardless of sex, creed, colour, height, or eye colour asks me for a GeForce FX5200 with 128MB of DDR - by joe they'll be invoiced, thanked, and happy(?) with their new video card in short order! You know what you want? I don't have to work for it? Yay! Why waste time patronizing a person who's already got their mind set? You'll just waste a lot of time losing a sale. Duh?
Now here's where I have to reel you in some. :) That coin has two sides, my friend. I've known my share of women in technology who were embittered by men to the point of sheer blindness. It got to the point with some that they would refuse to accept any knowledge, experience, or advice (even when asked) from any man that didn't coincide with their pre-established viewpoint. "But according to the specs, the PS/2 ports are interchangable!" "Yes," I replied, "electrically they are, but that doesn't mean they'll function properly when reversed." Boy, was I ever cursed at. By the time she was finished chewing on my head I was practically a wife-beating pedophile. To the best of my knowledge, she finally checked the connections (a 10 second excersize that could have avoided a 30 minute battle royale) and lived happily ever after.
Other women have adapted such a deep persecution complex that they're incommunicable. I've had technical discussions and arguments with many peers; some of them women. But do you know how frustrating it is to be told that you're only claiming you're correct because "I'm a woman and you don't think I know what I'm talking about!"?!? It's indefensible! At first I'd spout empirical evidence about former arguments, I'd unleash a plethora of facts supporting my point, and as a last resort I'd compromise and find strengths in their argument in order to placate them. "Well, you're partly right, but in this specific instance ... "
Often times I've seen technically inclined, extremely bright, well educated, highly experienced women shunned from technical groups because of that very attitude. At some point, a lot of people (men included) have to step back and consider how much of their strife is brought upon themselves.
Re:Sadly so (Score:3, Insightful)
My father is a general contractor specializing in home repair and remodel. A good deal of his customers are women and I can say for a fact that he listens to and follows the wishes of all his customers to a T. He's even fired sub-contractors for such behavior as you've described.
I'm not one to deny that there certainly are problem contractors like you've described but I find it reprehensible that you still deal in uninformed stereotypes.
Re:It may come as a shock.... (Score:2, Insightful)
You know it might be insightful... (Score:3, Insightful)
A woman's perspective (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:no surprise... (Score:1, Insightful)