December 29, 2005 9:37 AM

The world wide web of women
Posted by Diane Danielsonat 9:37 AM

Looks like the boys are playing gameboys while the girls are surfing the web. For the first time the Washington Post reports on a study tracks how young women are outpacing the young men on the adoption of internet technologies (note registration may be required on the Post site to view the full article).

Traditionally, women have lagged behind men in adoption of Internet technologies, but a study released yesterday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that women under age 65 now outpace men in Internet usage, though only by a few percentage points. But the survey also noted that the disparity between women and men on the Web is even greater among the 18-to-29 age group and African Americans.

The report, "How Women and Men Use the Internet," examined use by both sexes, looking at what men and women are doing online as well as their rate of adopting new Web-based technologies.

"I think the real interesting story is the young women, because that is the one age cohort where there are many more women online," said Deborah Fallows, who wrote the report based on findings from surveys conducted over the past five years. "The younger women are just much more comfortable with the Internet."

The report found that 86 percent of women ages 18 to 29 were online, compared with 80 percent of men in the same age group. Among African Americans, 60 percent of women are online, compared with 50 percent of men.