How Far Have Women Come Online?

May 15 -- Three years and almost 100 columns later, Wired Women has accomplished its mission: It has chronicled the extraordinary events and profiled the fascinating women who have helped to create our digital culture.

It has responded to the kudos and criticisms of thousands of readers, and it has reflected both the wisdom and the humor of its hundreds of valued sources.

Yes, it's still a work in progress. But it's a good time for a break: Like the Internet system that delivers it, Wired Women has come of age. And the women it covers have made real strides since the days when jiggly supermodels in frozen-frame video were the most feminist feature on the Internet.

Today, women rule the Web.

Moms Online

More of us spend more time online than any other demographic — including our adolescent children. A study last week by Digital Marketing Services, a subsidiary of America Online, reported that American moms spend about 4.5 hours more per week online than their teenage kids do — an astonishing average of about 17 hours per mom per week.

We could be using that time to complete an advanced degree, to master conversational French, to track down and compile a collection of gourmet recipes to please our families and dazzle our dinner guests.

Yeah, right.

In fact, a new study by Jupiter Media Metrix says at least a third of us are playing video games and another third are downloading music files ("Don't bother Mommy now, dear, she's working…."). We're logging on in search of diet tips, health advice, and travel deals. We're searching for love, for answers, and most of all, for bargains — on goods and services we didn't know we needed.

We're Web women, circa 2002, and we're proud of it.

Struggles Persist

But this column was never just about the Internet. It was about women in technology — in the boardroom, in the classroom, and in the culture.

And while women may be taking over the Web, they're still struggling to make their mark in the industry.In a study by DeLoitte & Touche last year, 60 percent of women in the high-tech industry said they'd choose another career if they had it to do over. Two-thirds said the glass ceiling still limits their access to the upper echelons of the high-tech industry.