Nancy’s Blog

Today’s NY Times has an article about how tech designers are figuring out that (gasp) women buy technology.

Don’t get excited. Wait till you see what they think women want:

Energizer, the battery maker, went so far as to create a charger for each sex. The Dock & Go, at $33, is aimed at men. Black and gray with shiny trim, the two pods hold up to four batteries each (AA or AAA). A light glows red when it is charging, yellow when it is charged.

The second device, the $20 Easy Charger [pictured], is aimed at women, who usually end up managing the household’s batteries. This charger is flat, round and sold with interchangeable faceplates in silver, black and eggshell that help it blend in with kitchen appliances. Large light-emitting-diode readouts spell out what the countertop charger is doing at every phase of the charging cycle. Focus-group testing indicated that men were turned off by the Easy Charger, especially in how its readouts appeared to tell them what they thought they already knew…“’We found that how people use chargers is very different,” she said. “For her, she wants it to be instantly understandable.”

Geez, and all these years I’ve been using a (unisex?) Radio Shack charger instead of one for women. But then my charger doesn’t match my kitchen: a decorating faux pas! How nice that the women’s charger costs less - did the men in their focus groups prefer to pay more?

Besides a general level of cluelessness, this reveals the misuse of qualitative research methods, in this case, focus groups: sit down a bunch of people, ask them some questions, and, voila, make proclamations about “women” and “men.”

The article does indicate one area where this research is valid - sometimes: size. Smaller and lighter objects for carrying around, such as for cameras. However, they come to some odd conclusions in this domain, too:

….the wider spacing of the keys on a new Sony ultraportable computer notebook …accommodates the longer fingernails that women tend to have.

Quick, look around: how many women who would buy an expensive Sony ultraportable actually have long fingernails? Of course there’s also the issue of smaller keys with lesser spacing for women’s smaller hands. What’s a poor tech company to do?

Here’s an idea: offer a range of options, not for women and men, but for people with different needs and preferences. Oh, but then they wouldn’t know which to make in black and silver, and which to match the kitchen appliances.

As depicted by TV writers of today — specifically, on Battlestar Galactica.

I’m always a late adopter of popular culture, waiting to let others sort out what’s worth paying attention to: in this case, Battlestar Galactica. With the start of the new season, enough reviewers said this is one of the best dramas (of any sort) on television to get my attention; plus they did a special “The Story So Far” for people like me. So I’ve watched that plus the first regular episode of this season. And what struck me was the gender issues.

I’m sure this gets discussed a lot among BG fans, but I’m coming to it anew, untouched by the discussion. And the presentation of gender relations was both refreshing and annoying. Refreshing because women were fighter (Viper) pilots. (I haven’t followed it enough to know what to think of the female ex-president.) Annoying because:

• the Resistance seems to be entirely male. At least the leadership we see is.
• Kara was expected to — and seemed to be shown to — “instinctively” recognize her “daughter,” the child conceived using her ovaries, without her knowledge or participation. (Do they expect men to “instinctively” recognize the children conceived from their donor sperm?)
• Most of all, the language! After we’ve seen a group of almost-all-female viper pilots training, Commander Adama tells Captain (or whatever he is now) Adama, his son, that his “men” aren’t ready for battle yet. And when someone wants a woman officer’s attention, he calls her “Sir.” Surely it would have been as easy to say something about his “people” or “crew” or “flyers” or ANYTHING but “men.” And if they’ve come up with a new swear word (”frak”), surely they can solve the “sir” issue for addressing officers?

I just find it disappointing that a show that goes so far as to show women in most of the roles traditionally associated with men STILL makes such silly decisions. I’m sure the language issues were debated by the writers (how could they NOT debate about calling all those female viper pilots “men”?) and these were the choices they made. Don’t tell me “men” really means “people,” or will in the future, not until a mixed group is just as easily called “women.”