Are female web hosting users better with tech than men?

The battle of the sexes is perhaps something that is notable in many industries, including the web hosting world. A recent poll has indicated that women are better at dealing with technology than men.

This is because of their patience and superior listening skills, according to the research, which looked at 75,000 calls to the helpline between September and October 2009. Women spend on average 32 per cent longer on the phone than men, but males are nearly twice as likely to call back, the study found.

Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of men who call the Gadget Helpline admit that they have not actually read the instruction manual, compared to just 24 per cent of women.

In another comparison between the sexes, close to a fifth (17 per cent) of females will call with a gadget that actually works perfectly well but ask if they are doing the right thing, while just nine per cent of males do the same thing.

Over one in ten (12 per cent) male customers just needed to plug in or turn on their appliance, while this was the case with only seven per cent of female callers.

Following the survey, Maggie Berry, director of womenintechnology.co.uk, commented: "The bit that did stick out for me was that women would try to sort the problem out themselves first. I thought that spoke volumes really.

"One of the things I’m interested in is the generation of young people coming through growing up with technology, whether more of that generation coming through who are female would consider working in IT."

She hopes that women will be able to do a lot more in IT in the future, especially with new technologies such as the iPhone apps.

"Technology has given us a lot more capability to respond," she added.

Written by Mick Woods.