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05/11/12 | Uncategorized

Operation Liberation: Tearing Down The Pink Ghetto

When it comes to women and technology, misconceptions abound.

By Leslie Bradshaw (Co-Founder & President, JESS3)

If the chatter on the internet is to be believed, women: 1) play a small role in the world of tech and 2) are best suited in the “Pink Ghetto” where the tech they create is free to be fluffy, cute and yes, often pink.

Neither of these beliefs are accurate. Let’s examine why.

First, women rule the tech world — as consumers. While they may not represent the majority of tech engineers and tech startup founders (of which only 5% are women), women are voracious users of technology and are online trendsetters, not anomalies.

As a recent Clever Girls blog post points out, women are majority users of social media, highly active users of smartphones and wield impressive buying power.

Not to mention, on social websites with an even mix of female and male users, women are the early adopters and drivers of activity. It’s telling that, in the early days of Facebook, women joined and used the site at a much higher rate than men. Techies beware: don’t discount the influence of women!

Second, the ”Pink Ghetto” is not a real place. Women 2.0 debunked this myth with hard statistics, proving that women-led startups are not disproportionately focused around fashion, shopping and babies, despite what Jolie O’Dell’s well-intentioned tweet may have implied.

» Read the full article at Forbes.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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