Letter: He said, she said

From Alison Kidd

The recent studies on men and women talking (22/29 December 2007, p 60) reminded me of a study I conducted at Hewlett-Packard labs some years ago. The perception in the IT industry at the time was that men were much more interested in digital technology than women were, and therefore would have much more to say on the topic.

We happened (for some other purpose) to be running eight discussion groups, four male and four female, talking about the digital devices people owned or had in their homes. We analysed the discussions from all eight groups (90 participants) and categorised every comment.

We found that, contrary to expectation, the men and women talked about the technology in pretty much equal measure. But there was one big gender difference. The men talked almost exclusively about the technical devices themselves – the model numbers, capabilities, functions and features – but we struggled to get them to tell us what they actually used the devices for.

In contrast, the women talked enthusiastically and at length about all the different uses they had found for the devices and how their lives had been enriched by them. In their case, we struggled to get them to describe the actual model numbers they owned or the features these devices offered.

Brecon, Powys, UK