New technologies mean new work opportunities. Thus, IT and e-commerce have the potential to create jobs, and change the nature of work. For example, telework and home businesses are two phenomena, which are closely linked to the capabilities of IT and the growth of e-commerce (OECD, 1999).
Women’s advancement to positions with more power and authority in organization and their interest in new technologies are relatively new phenomena. Women with higher aspirations of work and career, and better education will have a greater propensity to use new and advanced technologies compared to the past (Eriksson — Zetterquist, 2007).
As a consequence of this, ICTs become more widely used as a daily part of social and economic life, and the image of computers is becoming less ‘techy’ and ‘only for men’. Especially computer manufacturing and design companies pay attention to the untapped potential of women buyers (Faulkner&Lie, 2007). These efforts are important because we can predict that, as the proportion of women ICT users increase, the proportion of working women in ICT professions may increase.
Everyday life gains a “uni-sex” feature especially with the internet (Selwyn, 2007). This gender equality seems as a consequence of the rapid diffusion of information technologies and internet into the society (Eriksson-Zetterquist, 2007).
Internet, the technological innovation oftwen — tieth century, was first conceptualized in 1974 as a “network of networks” (Loebbecke&Wareham, 2003) and became an important tool for developing new businesses (Forson&Ozbilgin, 2003). Internet can connect people to libraries, schools, and shopping centers, and can be a home entertainment, and become a basic interpersonal communication technology (Kraut et al., 1999). Technology intensive sectors are male dominated and do not create much opportunities for women, but Internet, a sub-division of the technology sector, seems to attract more women (Forson&Ozbilgin, 2003).
While some researchers claim that the Internet use contributes to well-being because it provides some opportunities such as connection and access to information, others argue that the Internet use isolates people from the society and block the social relations and also it makes difficult to find the real information (Jackson et al., 2001).
According to Friedman (2005), the internet has a potential to democratize gender equality advocacy by making rapid interaction and information exchange easier. These easy communication opportunities lead to expand feminist ideals of more horizontal relations within the organizations.
Most of the people have access to internet during the whole day. This easy and wide access proliferate some issues such as working at home, communication, entertainment, and other personal uses (Kling, 2000). As the proportion of personal computing and internet access increase, dramatical changes in people’s lives occur and females gain more access to the technology than ever before (Knupfer, 1998; Kraut et al., 1999).
Internet as a multi-faceted technology is accepted as a ‘ feminine ’ technology, and it is thought that this feminine image can create conducive conditions for women to get more involved. However no single factor accounts for the increase in self-employment, particularly women’s selfemployment in internet sector. Cultural attitudes, attitudes towards autonomy, flexibility in working hours and a willingness to take economic risks must not be discounted when considering the setting in which women’s entrepreneurship flourished in the internet sector (citedin Forson&Ozbilgin, 2003).
Indeed, Braten and Stromso (2006) explain that the levels of participation in internet-based communication activities ofmales are higher than females. On the other hand, the number of women using computers and involving in IT professions is increasing as a result of the rapid development of the internet (Forson&Ozbilgin, 2003).
There are some gender based differences in internet use. According to Jackson et al. (2001), women and men use the internet equally but differently; females use e-mail, and males use web more than each other, and females feel more computer anxiety, less computer self-efficacy, and less favorable and less stereotypic computer attitudes than males.
Females’ behavior of using e-mail more than males is thought to be related with their stronger motive for interpersonal communication, and males’ behavior of using web more than females is thought to be consistent with their stronger motive for information (Jackson et al., 2001). Females being heavier e-mail user and being lighter users of the web is also supported by some studies (Kraut et al., 1999; Gefen&Straub, 1997).
E-mail links people to each other and reinforces relationships as a personalized and convenient tool. It is faster than postal mail and has lots of utilities such as automatic replies, distrubition lists, and computerized search and so on. As a form of written conversation, people find communication through e-mail to be relatively interactive compared to classical tools (Kraut et al., 1999).
Whereas e-mail sustains ongoing dialogues and relationships, web information has more bounded properties. And the goal is satisfied with one or few visits in web. E-mail is also psychologically interesting because of containing partial information and personally relevant reinforcement that people want to explore further. For women, using e-mail more than men is definitely related to the need for interpersonal communication (Kraut et al., 1999). Also there is also a basic factor that can affect people’s internet or technology use such as to have a computer at home (Jackson et al., 2001).
Whereas men’s technology usage decisions are strongly influenced by their perceptions of usefulness, women are more strongly influenced by perceptions of ease of use opposite of men. Also subjective norm effects women’s technology decisions, although the effect diminished over time. That means as women consider normative influences more than men, subjective norm does not influence men’s decision at any point of time. Briefly, men are more driven by instrumental factors (perceived usefulness) and women are more motivated by process (perceived ease of use) and social (subjective norm) factors (Venkatesh&Morris, 2000).
Indeed, some researchers state that gender gaps in internet use were more pronounced until a few years ago, but appear to be closing now.
For instance, UK users were 85% men and 15% women in 1998, but by 2000 women constituted half of the UK on-line population which followed a similar trend in the United States. Although the proportion of female internet users has become higher, female users may not view the experience as positively as their male counterparts. A stereotypically masculine culture has developed around computer use (citedinDittmar et al., 2004).