Gender and Information Technology

About the same percent of adult men and women have access to home computers. About 57 percent of adult men have home computers while about 54 percent of adult women have home computers. (1)

Male and female householders are about just as likely to own computers with 45 percent of male householders having a home computer and 42.1 percent of female householders having a home computer. (1)

Computer use:

Females without a disability were more likely than males without a disability to be regular users of personal computers in 1999. The difference was 51.6 percent versus 50.3 percent. (2)

In 1984, about 43 percent of females and 63 percent of males used a home computer. Almost 10 years later in 1993, about 61 percent of females and 70 percent of males used a home computer. (5)

Computer access by children:

About 71 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls used computers at school in 1997. (5)

64.8 percent of girls 3 to 17 years old have access to home computers, while   65.3 percent boys of the same age have access to home computers. (1)

Male householders provide access to computers to their children 3 to 17 years old by a slightly higher percentage than female householders. The difference is 48.8 percent versus 43 percent. (1)

Computer uses by children:

Forty-two percent of girls used the household computer for word processing, compared to 36 percent of boys in 1997. (5)

About 79 percent of girls and 87 percent of boys played games on the household computer in 1997. (5)

Internet access:

About 45 percent of males and about 44 percent of females use the Internet. (2)

About 31 percent of female householders have home Internet access while about 35 percent of male householders have home Internet access. (1)

Adult women are slightly less likely to have access to the Internet at home compared to adult men. The difference is 36.2 percent versus 38.5. The difference is due to the higher proportion of women 55 years old and older, an age group with lower rates of Internet use regardless of sex. (1)

Internet access by disability status:

About 20 percent of females and about 24 percent of males with a disability have access to the Internet at home in 1999. (2)

About 23 percent of disabled males and 20 percent of disabled females used the Internet in 1999. (2)

Forty percent of females and 43.3 percent of males without a disability had Internet access at home in 1999. (2)

Internet access by racial and ethnic background:

About 51 percent of white males and about 50 percent of white females used the Internet in 2000. (2)

Asian American and Pacific Islander males were more likely to use the Internet in 2000 than females, 53 percent for males and about 46 percent for females. (2)

Black females were slightly more likely than black males in 2000 to use the Internet, 30.5 percent of black females and about 28 percent of black males. (2)

Hispanic females were also more likely than Hispanic males in 2000 to use the Internet, about 25 percent of Hispanic females and about 23 percent of Hispanic males. (2)

Internet access by children:

Girls 3 to 17 years old slightly more have access to the Internet at home than boys, with 30.6 percent of girls having access and 30.2 percent of boys having access. (1)

Male households are slightly more likely than female households to provide Internet access to their children 3 to 17 years old. The difference is 23.9 percent versus 17.8 percent (1)

Seventeen percent of boys and 16.3 percent of girls had access to the Internet in school in 1997. (5)

Boys more often looked up news/sports/weather information than girls in 1997, 35.4 percent compared to 19.7 percent. (5)

Girls were more likely to use the Internet to send and receive e-mail in 1997, 61.1 percent of girls compared to 54.4 percent of boys (5)

Internet access by location:

About 36 percent of males and 35 percent of females used the Internet at home in 2000. (2)

Males were more likely in 2000 to use the Internet outside home than females, with about 20 percent of males and about 19 percent of females. (2)

Uses for home Internet access:

More females use the Internet at home for e-mail than males, 79 percent for females and about 77 percent for males in 1998. (2)

Males used the Internet at home more often for information searches than females, about 61 percent for males and 58 percent for females in 1998. (2)

More females used the Internet at home to take courses than males, about 35 percent for males and 38 percent for females in 1998. (2)

About 34 percent of males and about 24 percent of females used the Internet at home for job-related tasks in 1998. (2)

About 16 percent of males and about 13 percent of females used the Internet at home for jobs searches in 1998. (2)

Internet access outside the home:

About 65 percent of males versus and about 61 percent of females had access  to the Internet at work in 2000. (2)

Females were more likely to have access to the Internet at school in 2000, with 20 percent females and about 18 percent of males having access there. (2)

More females used the Internet at libraries than males in 1998. About 11 percent of females used public libraries for Internet access while nine percent of males used the Internet at public libraries. (2)

Uses for e-mail:

The top reason for males and females to use e-mail at home in 1998 was to communicate with family and friends. About 92 percent of males and about 95 percent of females used e-mail at home for that purpose. (2)

The top reason for males and females to use e-mail outside the home was job- related. About 75 percent of males and about 66 percent of females used e-mail for work in 1998. (2)

Females were more likely to use e-mail outside the home to communicate with family and friends than males in 1998. The difference is about 63 percent versus 57 percent. (2)

Males and females were just as likely to use e-mail at home for educational purposes in 1998, with 28.6 of males and 28.7 of females responding. (2)

About 25 percent of females used e-mail outside the home for educational purposes in 1998 compared to about 21 percent of males. (2)

Men were also more likely to use e-mail at home for hobbies and special interests than females in 1998, with about 35 percent of males responding and about 29 percent of females responding. (2)

Males were more likely to use e-mail outside the home for hobbies and special interests than females in 1998. About 10 percent of females used e-mail for that purpose while 13 percent of males used e-mail for that reason. (2)

Males were much more likely to use e-mail at home in 1998 for a job-related purpose than females. The difference was about 39 percent for males versus about 26 percent for females. (2)

Benefits of e-mail:

Sixty percent of women and 51 percent of men believe e-mail exchanges have improved their connections to family members. (4)

Sixty-one percent of women and 56 percent of men communicate more with significant family members as a result of using e-mail. (4)

Seventy-one percent of women and 61 percent of men believe using e-mail has improved their connection with significantly friends. (4)

Favorite Web sites of women and men (3):
 

Men were more likely to use the Internet at home in 1997 to look for news, weather and sports than women, 57.8 percent versus 41.2 percent. (5)

Men also looked at news groups more often than women, 20.5 percent versus 12.5 percent in 1997. (5)

Men checked schedules, bought tickets or made reservations somewhat more frequently than women in 1997, 26.5 percent compared with 22.9 percent. (5) 

Online shopping:

American women represented  38 percent of online shoppers in April 1999. That is an increase from 29 percent in September 1997. (6)

About 10.6 million American women made purchases on the Internet in April 1999, compared to 3 million in September 1997. (6)

Sources:

1- Home Computers and Internet Use in the United States: August 2000, U.S. Census Bureau, issued September 2001.

2- Charts by the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

3- Vent Magazine, Summer 1998, survey conducted by ivillage.com.

4- Pew Internet and American Life Project, Princeton Survey Research Associates, study conducted in 2000.

5- Computer Use in the United States, U.S. Census Bureau, September 1999.

6- Commercenet; Neilsen Media Research.

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