The Girl With the Gadget Tattoo

While we were focusing all our attention on brogrammer dudes, women have become bigger users and purchasers of technology than men. JL

Erin Griffith reports in Fortune:

Women are more likely than men to build a personal blog, follow a brand or celebrity, or have a social networking profile. Women check their phones more often than men and play mobile games more often than men. More girls use Snapchat than male peers. When today’s young women become adults, they will influence more spending decisions than anyone else in their household.

Technology companies know the value of early adopters who are eager to try a hot new product and tell all their friends about it. But early adopters no longer look like the stereotypical hoodie-wearing gadget nerd obsessing over the specs of the latest iPhone—in part because they’re no longer men. Today young women are beating men to technology trends.

Women are more likely than men to build a personal blog, follow a brand or celebrity, or have a social networking profile, according to Nielsen. Women check their phones more often than men and play mobile games more often than men, according to Experian. More teenage girls use Snapchat than male peers of the same age. When today’s young women become adults, they will influence more spending decisions than anyone else in their household.

Yet nearly all the tech products women adopt are created, financed, designed, and built primarily by men.

There was a time when tech’s titans could easily shrug off their industry’s big, awkward gender problem. Why are tech companies led and staffed primarily by men? “It’s a pipeline problem!” Why did 93% of venture deals over the past six years go to startups led by men? “There just aren’t very many women in tech.” Why do women account for less than 6% of decision-making partners at venture firms? “Um, we can’t find any qualified candidates?”