Since its inception, the World Wide Web has been characterized as a male-dominated space. Recent surveys report, however, that the gender gap between online users is closing. In the summer of 1998, America Online (AOL), one of the nation’s largest and most popular Internet service providers, announced that its women clients (52%) outnumbered its clients who are men. Only four years earlier, 16 percent of AOL members were women. Yet online usage statistics fail to speak to the male bias on the web, argues Dianne Lynch, chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont. "The brave new digital world is no democracy," she writes in her online column "Wired Woman", "and strength in numbers isn’t buying us influence on the Web or employment in the corporate offices of the high-tech firms that increasingly control it. The prototypical computer geek…is a young, white male. And male sensibilities still dominate the technology industries, from the design of the lowliest laptop to the hiring practices of the largest conglomerates."

What signs of gender bias in content and design do you see on the web? Choose a news or information site. Write an essay in which you discuss the extent to which the content and design of that web site are male- or female-oriented.

There are a number of sites that document web usage statistics and demographics. You might visit Cyber Atlas or the Library of Congress resource page on Internet Statistics and Demographics for guidance in finding out the extent to which the gender gap between women and men online has continued to narrow since 1998.

There are a plethora of web sites offering "women's content." Consider two of the following sites:

Women.com, a network of women's magazines, online shopping, and gateway to women's content on the web.

Oxygen, " the first Online and On-air network for women by women."

ivillage, which also describes itself as "The Women’s network."

gUrl, an online e-zine and community for teenaged girls.

Chickclick, an online community for young women offering links to sister sites and print and e-zines by women for women.

Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the design, editorial, and marketing approach of the two women's sites you've chosen. You might consider some of the following questions: To what types of women do each of these sites or networks seem to be catering? How would you compare the look and feel of the sites? What sort of community is each one trying to create?

Visit the following sites and write a review of the one you feel has the most nonsexist design:

http://www.nwhp.org/ National Women’s History Project

http://www.girlson.com/ The Final Word in Entertainment: Yours

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/ The Guerrilla Girls (a group of women artists, writers, performers, film makers, and arts professionals who fight discrimination)