First, take a look at this article from Mashable talking about how many of the newer social networking sites (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc) have a population where women outnumber men. The article asks commentators why they think this is the case.

Then take a look at some of the comments. A few samples:

I think overall, there’s less women that work outside of the home. More home time = more opportunity and desire to connect via social media. Many of my female friends are stay at home moms and many run businesses from home, like teaching piano lessons, selling art or crafts, some have consulting businesses, etc. Some men do too, but overall, most of my male friends work outside of the home.

AND

Maybe women are more likely to create a second identity to spy on the man that hurt her… a womans scorn? Or a woman is more likely to create a new account after being harassed from all the male attention on the other. I know someone who has about 10 different persona’s on a few social sites… she worries me o.0

AND

I’m glad I have just come across this. I have to discuss in a blog for my masters course if its difficult for women to break into the world of social media. Obviously its not, shown by the statistics above. I’m new to this whole social media thing, and have spent a few days trying to understand it.

It doesn’t surprise me that women rule the social web. The majority of their time is spent twittering celebrities and uploading drunken photos and stalking ex-boyfriends on facebook (I dont do that by the way. I do have a life). As for the Digg website, I can understand why more men are on it than women, its too technical for women to understand. I only browsed it for a few seconds and my mind went blank!

AND

well no shit women rule the social sites… how many spam accounts do you see offering you free access to male sites or male videos? none. this data is cluttered with spam garbage. sift out all of the porn spam first, then do the report.

AND (I like this one)

This article hit close to home. Despite the fact that more women participate in social media, there exists a profound “good old boys” club in the tech sector. Men who are not secure in their masculinity have great difficulty accepting tech advice from female aficionados. Some of the men I’ve met on Twitter have gone as far as emoting hostility towards women who have displayed I.Q .s above double digits. A case in point, I tweeted that the Dalia Lama’s account was fraudulent exactly 4 minutes prior to your announcement. As a result, I was dragged through the mud and castigated.

AND

As for Twitter, even though women account for 55% of all accounts, men are the leaders – tweets from men are more widely read, and men have 15% more followers than women. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-truth-about-…

My take on this is nicely summed up by this other poster

On an unconscious level, the mass majority become distressed when their expectations of gender roles, schemas, are blurred. So, chicks rule, if and only if, we blather about non-tech topics.

Moreover, if a woman is even remotely semi-attractive, both men and women want (desperately) to believe that she cannot possibly be tech savvy.

Lesson learned from personal experience: women should be seen and not heard, notwithstanding that the year is 2009.

Well guys, I’d ask you to follow me on Twitter but we all know I only tweet because I am a do nothing sit-at-home women who is too stupid to use other sites. My tweets obviously don’t provide as much value as a man’s, though, so keep your expectations low. I’m really just a big boobed spam bot who only tweets about my ex-boyfriends and celebrities.

Also, the women on that article who are attacking the other woman for being offended about the term “chick”? Do women have to suck up language like that? Yes. Should we have to? Freakin’ no! That was the whole point.

I just had to post this because every few weeks someone tells me sexism doesn’t exist in this country anymore and I am like, um, is that so?

Not going to lie, reeeeeealllly tempted to create a second profile where I tweet the same stuff but pretend to be a man and see if I really get retweeted more often and get more followers.

I’m too annoyed to be articulate right now. What do you folks think? I want to hear from the boys as well as the girls.