Domainer Gender Imbalance

[sashas]

This is somewhat disturbing to me.

We have so few female domainers! Domaining is suddenly looking like one big, boring sausage fest. We need more females in this business, period. Whats the fun in doing anything if there are no chicks around to hit on?

On a serious note, why is domaining somewhat a primarily male field? What is it about domaining that doesn't attract women? Its not manual labor, so I can't see why women wouldn't be attracted to domaining.

To the female domainers here. What attracts you to domaining (and domainers ) and why do you think more of your kind aren't present in this field?

 

[-REECE-]

That's a good question Sashas. I've always wondered that myself about domaining. I mean seriously.. Isn't it the perfect job for a stay-at-home mom? What woman wouldn't like the flexibility of setting their own hours?

Is domaining considered too nerdy? :gl:

 

[TheBulldog]

One could easily argue that psychologically, domaining is much like card collecting, comic collecting, or having the best and biggest power tools.....typically a male trait to claim superiority.

Think of it this way....the biggest sales made, those over 10K for instance. How many of them are made to the female gender?

And I mean this as NO offense to our female domain counter parts, I mean it only as a common sense reality check. My wife often will counteract my suggestions with the female equivelant of a reality check. She will say "so if I was a woman, would I pay XXX for your *insert product/domain/idea* here"

If the answer is no, then I price accordingly. If yes, I price as she suggests. Invairiably, I end up selling for what she predicts.

 

[dnk]

It is very simple, in most countries especially in Asia, most women don't earn the kind of money to give them the freedom to spend on domains.

 

[domainer50]

I cant see a woman domaining other than in a big corporate environment. Basically its like what the bulldog said. Your collecting an oddity which most woman dont care to learn about nor understand.

 

[shockie]

in addition to what bulldog suggested, domaining is also more on the "tech" side of things, of which guys also seem to show more interest in than the girls.

 

[domainer50]

in addition to what bulldog suggested, domaining is also more on the "tech" side of things, of which guys also seem to show more interest in than the girls.

Although technology is a male dominated thing, you would think that their would be some woman somewhere making leaps and bounds in the industry as that is usually the case with many other male dominated fields.

 

[Michelle]

I know of many women domainers here that prefer to be thought of as male. There are more around then you may think

 

[Shane]

I know of many women domainers here that prefer to be thought of as male. There are more around then you may think

I was thinking the same. You, NPQ, lodes others.

 

[Michelle]

I was thinking the same. You, NPQ, lodes others.

Not that I am one that prefers to be thought of as male, I dont but most just presume you are male until told otherwise and I do know a few members here that do like others to think they are male as they think they will be taken more serious.

 

[sashas]

I don't really take the line that domaining is 'technical'. Personally, I'm something of a technophobe. I still can't set up a simple HTML page.
So I don't believe domaining is 'nerdy' in any way. Its purely business to me, mixed in with some pleasure, of course.

 

[dnk]

If you are not technical or cannot understand the technical aspects, you are much more likely to loose money / and or your domains.

 

[sashas]

Not that I am one that prefers to be thought of as male, I dont but most just presume you are male until told otherwise and I do know a few members here that do like others to think they are male as they think they will be taken more serious.

I believe that is so wrong. Thats simple inequality and discrimination. If this would've happened in any other industry, it would've brought lawsuits. Domaining is still not taken as a serious industry, and this not taking women seriously issue only furthers the non-seriousness of domaining.

My dad still believes I'm doing something illegal..that I'm dealing drugs or something..

If you are not technical or cannot understand the technical aspects, you are much more likely to loose money / and or your domains.

I don't think so. I'm yet to lose money on names. I believe, rather, I'm making money on domains

 

[Michelle]

I believe that is so wrong. Thats simple inequality and discrimination. If this would've happened in any other industry, it would've brought lawsuits. Domaining is still not taken as a serious industry, and this not taking women seriously issue only furthers the non-seriousness of domaining.

My dad still believes I'm doing something illegal..that I'm dealing drugs or something..

I dont mind but I have found it many times that member here and elsewhere just presume your a male.. I hope that I have been here long enough that people respect me enough to do biz with me regardless of my sex

as for your dad.... buy him a nice car or something from your earnings :hehe:

If you are not technical or cannot understand the technical aspects, you are much more likely to loose money / and or your domains.

Big non-techie here and I do ok :hehe:

 

[shockie]

i don't feel that the domaining industry discriminates against females. males don't get priority over drops, more discounts in renewal fees, etc...

Although technology is a male dominated thing, you would think that their would be some woman somewhere making leaps and bounds in the industry as that is usually the case with many other male dominated fields.

then perhaps there already is, or there will be in the next couple of years. but even as of now, there are only a dozen or so male domainers making huge leaps and bounds, with the other big names being companies.

 

[cache]

girls are better at words. Female is supposed to be good at the game called "set" according to scientists.

However female may not want to take the risk, this market is not that liquid.

 

[sashas]

I dont mind but I have found it many times that member here and elsewhere just presume your a male.. I hope that I have been here long enough that people respect me enough to do biz with me regardless of my sex

If I were you, I would be very pissed if my gender even pops up in a deal. I cannot really imagine why someone would have problems in dealing with a woman.

But really. As an industry that practically rules the internet, domaining is still typified by shady activities, fraud, TM infringement, and other such unsavory activities (including discrimination). We still hear of names being stolen every week, and the other hundreds that go unreported. Such things are somehow just overlooked.

I believe that the big domainers need to do something to give this industry some credibility. They have the financial clout to do so. Perhaps if they spent less time at drop auctions and checking PPC stats and writing about it on their blogs, they might be able to get some recognition. The burden of responsibility has to be taken by the most able of shoulders, and in this case, its the big domainers...

girls are better at words. Female is supposed to be good at the game called "set" according to scientists.

However female may not want to take the risk, this market is not that liquid.

Its exactly this attitude that might make some of the female domainers hide their identities and give off the impression of being male.

I don't know where you got the notion that women are 'better' at words. A study of literature in any language would easily prove that writing talents are equally distributed among men and women. There was a time when it was considered that women are better at language than men, but it has been passed away as just plain ignorant talk.

Also, I cannot possibly imagine what being a woman has to do with taking risks and the market being not liquid? I don't believe taking risks is a male dominion, just as writing isn't a female one (I'm a writer, for the record, and I'm male).

 

[npcomplete]

This is a fascinating question sashas. For many years now I have been interested in neural nets and the functioning of the brain (I own neural dot net). This interest in the mathematics of neural processing led to other general studies associated with the brain. Among other things I have *lots* of books dealing with the sexual differentiation of the brain. It is certainly no secret that women excel in verbal skills compared to men (in a statistical sense of course). They also tend to do a better job of relating things to each other. The inter-hemisphere communication via the corpus callosum between the left and right hemispheres is much more robust compared to the male brain. I once heard a doctor compare the inter-hemisphere communication pathway between women and men to the difference between a freeway (women) and a dirt road (men).

Given the physiological differences and innate skills, one might almost be led to think that women might have a natural *advantage* over men in this field, which relies strongly on verbal skills. I do know a number of women in the field that are *very* good at domaining. Given that, I am inclined to agree with some of the posts above that mention economic factors. Another obvious factor is the inherent risk taking in the field, and there does appear to be a strong correlation between risk and testosterone.

As for me, I ask my wife about everything in domaining. She has come up with some excellent ideas for the general marketplace (some coming up in the next Geo auction). She is also a Realtor, which helps with real estate ideas.

Marc

...snip...
I don't know where you got the notion that women are 'better' at words. A study of literature in any language would easily prove that writing talents are equally distributed among men and women. There was a time when it was considered that women are better at language than men, but it has been passed away as just plain ignorant talk.
...snip...

Right... and there is no difference in muscle development either, being equally distributed between men and women...

Believe it or not, the refereed journals point to real differences in neuroanatomy and sexual differentiation of the brain... but heaven forbid that we bring refereed journals into the discussion... and of course the PC view taught in colleges these days is that there is no difference between the sexes.

Refs:
Dubb A, Gur R, Avants B, Gee J. "Characterization of sexual dimorphism in the human corpus callosum." Neuroimage. 2003 Sep;20(1):512-9.

Shin YW, Kim DJ, Ha TH, Park HJ, Moon WJ, Chung EC, Lee JM, Kim IY, Kim SI, Kwon JS. "Sex differences in the human corpus callosum: diffusion tensor imaging study." Neuroreport. 2005 May 31;16(8):795-8.

Regards,
Marc

 

[dnk]

If you are exclusively buying and selling domains non-technical is OK, but if you are developing, managing hundreds of sites on several servers, you should understand how stuff works.

More than gender, there are other factors. Compared to web development, there is a lot more discrimination in domaining.

 

[htmlindex]

Just like most things to do with business & corporate life, it's mainly male dominated.

We need more females in this business, period. Whats the fun in doing anything if there are no chicks around to hit on?

Never mix business & pleasure :hehe: