Is the Internet Biased Towards Male Users? A-Describing the issue The internet, the world at the tip of your fingers, what ever subjects you can think of what ever aspect you are searching for, you can find on the Internet! From books to libraries to newspapers, sports and the arts. However an issue is raised over the utilization of the Internet and that it the Internet is more biased (aimed) towards men. That is because most sites are made or are hoped to be viewed by men, i.e. porn sites, sports sites, news and several other sites that are mainly aimed towards men. The effect of this is that men become more familiar with the usage of the Internet and learn new experiences. However, this has a negative effect on females, they are not encouraged about giving the internet a try or they feel that all the sites are aimed towards men there fore they don't want to access it in thought that they wont find an interest in it.
Internet!
Women using the internet in Herat, Afghanistan.
English: Taken from the internet, public teaching ...This makes women less intellectual than, men, because like this men use the internet more than women and know how to use it therefore they access more information and are known to be more "technical"ÃÂ whilst women don't know how to operate it and they wont know how to extract any information form the internet, they would also by more limited, as the internet opens new horizons to it's users.
B- IT background Another reason why female do not, tend to have more interest towards the internet and are more in depth with using it, while women, have limited choices of women, orientated websites on the internet such as (based on a survey): women healthcare, fashion and design, female clothing cosmetics women's sports, issues concerning women etc. The Internet may not be totally biased towards men it's just that men are heavy internet users and that a survey (GUV's user survey October 1998) showed that 50 % of men using the internet spend from 41 to 50 hours in front of the computer in a period of 5 days. This shows that men are consuming and over using the Internet, therefore women may not find a chance to access the Internet due to the heavy usage by males. Another reason that males use the internet more than females is that it is a psychological fact that men like to be more dominant in finding out new aspects and issues like in the past when males were only allowed to vote and that men always came prior to women. There fore males want to be more familiar with the Internet so that they can be more sophisticated than women, and I t may not be done on purpose, it is a psychological fact, that may be dominant in males.
The majority of the websites available on the Internet may be another reason why females are not very interested I the Internet. Most of the sites are either: sport sites (FIFA.com), porn sites, news sites (CNN.com) and search engines (LYCOS.com) Some other websites may provide interest to both sexes such mp3 music sites (audiofind.com), pop sites (MTV.com) playing online games (yahoo/games .com) and chat programs (ICQ). However we rarely find sites that are only dedicated to women and their interest, and if they are available, they may not be very popular due to poor advertising on the Internet. This results in women not getting their rightful share of interest in then Internet; C-Analyzing the issue Men tend to show more interest towards the internet a seem to be very in depth while using it, yet females tend not to be very bothered about the internet and they do not have a motive inorder to access the internet and find out about it. In house where there is a brother and a sister, the brother is on the Internet most of the time while the sister hardly gets to use the Internet, so this might be a matter of interest, and sharing! Sites that have female interest towards them may not be present because creating websites is a very time consuming job that needs a lot of effort and thought to be put into it, The process is also monetary consuming, and seeing that men use the internet more than women do, website companies will not produce sites for women interests and fail to generate revenue or profit and therefore they refuse to invest in this risk bearing process and produce sites for male users or a more successful site that is sure to generate profit.
In a straw poll carried out within the school, many girls/women wanted websites regarding female healthcare and they all agreed strongly about porn sites being unethical and that they are the first reason that men use the internet. They also said that they would like sites that discuss women's issues and concerns. However other females were glad with what the Internet was like and felt that it had no deficits! Looking into the issue, there are no pros to be mentioned about this issue, seeing as it is a disadvantage in many ways that have been explained earlier.
As a consequent of this phenomenon, we find that men would tend to use the internet more and more, not leaving any chances for females to access the facility, therefore leading to a lack in interest towards computer technology form females sides.
D-Solutions There are 2 solutions to this problem: Solution 1: Government sponsorships can be offered inorder to account for womens share in the internet and therefore persuading some companies to create websites with female interests. The government will benefit from this action by making more of the society sophisticated and therefore a more modern society.
Solution 2: The other solution is to use education as a means of making females, use the internet more often, and therefore when they grow up they will also use it because they are used to using it. This can be organized using PTA influences in schools, and certain education ministry councils. This method will not cost much seeing as the schools already provide an internet education system in most schools, however the aim is to make the female students know how to use the Internet.
Both solutions seem to be beneficial and efficient, however solution 2 maybe more easily implemented than solution 1 and it will cost less than solution 1.
E-Sources GUV's user survey (October 1998) www.askjeeves.com www.yahoo/search.com www.xrefer.com