Access

Gender

Communication and utility are top priorities for women, who use digital devices to stay in touch with friends and family as well as save time and help get their families organized, according to eMarketer.  Women are much less likely than men to seek out entertainment or simply pass the time on the internet or mobile phones. When they do go online to relax and unwind, this too has a social context. Women typically share content and experiences with selected friends or other people they know, according to eMarketer.

Online activities of UK internet users, by gender, in 2009 (% of respondents):
- Communication: 76% (male) / 75% (female)
- Work/Studies information: 39% / 32%
- Transactions: 37% / 36%
- Entertainment: 33% / 28%
- Content creation: 28% / 39%
- News: 27% / 16%
- Leisure information: 20% / 14%
- Public/civic: 16% / 11%
- Health: 8% / 7%

Although they make up a majority of the UK population, women are less numerous than men online, with 79% penetration compared with men's 84%, according to Eurostat. Daily usage is high, however, and data from Nielsen indicates engagement is increasing.

Involvement in the social media world, where women's adoption is outpacing men's, is also rising. The UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) found that in 2009, female internet users were 8% points more likely than males to have a social networking site profile, for example.

UK internet users with a social networking site profile, by gender, 2007 & 2009 (% of respondents):
- Total: 22% (2007) / 38% (2009)
- Male: 21% / 34%
- Female: 22% / 42%

Social networks are a primary channel for women online to strengthen existing bonds with friends and family, according to eMarketer. According to data from Universal McCann, women's top activities on social networks in 2009 included managing their own profile and visiting pages or blogs maintained by people they knew. Men, by contrast, were more interested in making new contacts. (eMarketer, January 2010)

Men continued to outnumber women online in the UK in September 2009, according to The Nielsen Company. But women edged them out among Internet users under 50 years old.

UK internet users, by age and gender, September 2009 (% of total):
Total: 50.5% (Men) / 49.6% (Women)
- 2-17: 6.2% / 6.6%
- 18-34: 12.6% / 15.3%
- 35-49: 14.3% / 14.7%
- 50-64: 12.3% / 10.5%
- 65+: 5.1% / 2.5%

Wireless internet usage was also somewhat stronger among men than among women, based on data from the UK Office for National Statistics.

Wireless internet users in the UK, by access device and gender, 2009 (% of respondents):
- Mobile phone via GPRS: 21% (Male) / 15% (Female) / 18% (Total)
- Mobile phone via UMTS, HSPDA (3G, 3G+): 11% / 5% / 8%
- Handheld computer: 7% / unavailable / 5%
- Laptop via wireless connection away from home / work: 29% / 23% / 26%
- None of the above: 54% / 66% / 60%
(eMarketer, December 2009)

74% of female internet users in the UK went online every day in 2008, according to IPC Media. This was up from 71% in 2007. In terms of login sessions, slightly more women went online on weekdays. But on the weekends, they spent more time online - an average of 20 more minutes a session.

Shopping was the most popular online activity. Nearly all the women (97%) said they researched products online, 92% said they bought products online while 88% said they both researched and bought products online.

Social networking sites are becoming more popular, too. More than half of all UK female internet users ever visited Facebook (66%) in 2008; slightly fewer went to MySpace (41%) and Bebo (23%). This was up respectively from 18%, 45% and 19% in 2007.

The appeal of video seems to be flattening out. While more UK women said they had visited YouTube in the past, 5% fewer said they were regular viewers. (eMarketer, April 2009)

Overall, women outnumber men in the UK. Males accounted for 49.5% of the total UK population in 2008, according to the US Census Bureau and will remain the slight minority over the next five years. Online, however, it's a somewhat different story.

eMarketer estimates that in 2008, there were 19.5 million males and 18.6 million females in the UK using the Internet. 

UK internet users, by gender, 2008-2013:

• 2008: 38.2 million including 19.5 million of male users and 18.6 female users
• 2009: 39.4 million (M=20.1 million and F=19.3 million)
• 2010: 40.6 million (M=20.7 million and F=19.9 million)
• 2011: 41.7 million (M=21.2 million and F=20.5 million)
• 2012: 42.8 million (M=21.7 million and F=21.1 million)
• 2013: 43.7 million (M-22.1 million and F=21.6 million)

Males will retain their majority online for the next five years. But as more women aged 55 and older become Internet users (and redress the marked dominance of men in this online age group) the male bias in the Web population will decrease, from 51.1% in 2008 to 50.5% in 2013.

eMarketer indicates that obviously, in absolute numbers, the gap between men and women online in the UK is not great, but if you look closely at what the genders tend to do online, you find many differences that marketers should consider.  The online activities of male Internet users in the UK are evolving. Beyond news and shopping, other longstanding favourites, such as e-mail and search, remain popular. Portals are also among men's most-visited sites.  According to comScore Media Metrix, social networks saw the largest gains with UK men, attracting 11% more unique male visitors in November 2008 than in November 2007. (eMarketer, February 2009)

UK housewives' appetite for the web is bigger than everyone else's, according to research - debunking the myth that it's the younger generations and males that spend the most time online. 

This group spend almost half (47% ) of their free time surfing the web, compared with the lower rates of 39% and 32% for students and the unemployed respectively. 

But the research - which spanned more than 27,000 respondents in 16 countries as part of TNS' Digital World, Digital Life report - also showed that despite our love of the web, we don't quite love it as much as our counterparts in China.  Indeed, Chinese surfers spend 44 % of their free time online, compared to 28% in the UK. (ITPro, January 2009)