Femininity, Masculinity: The Internet Usage of Women on Maternity

Femininity, Masculinity:
The Internet Usage of Women on Maternity Leave
STREAM:
The Virtuality Challenge: Gender, Organizing, and the Net
Author: Primecz, Henriett Ph. D.
Affiliation:
Corvinus University of Budapest (former Budapest University of Economic Sciences
and Public Administration)
Department of Organizational Behaviour
Faculty of Business Administration
H-1093 Fovám tér 8. Budapest
Phone/Fax: +36 1 482 5018
Mobil: +36 30 969 26 25
E-mail: [email protected]
Femininity, Masculinity:
The Internet Usage of Women on Maternity Leave
Abstract
There is nothing more feminine than giving birth and being at home with a newborn child on
maternity leave. Modern societies, which clearly divided the work place and the place of
consumption (home), provide possibility of maternity leave for women who gave birth.
Women usually can choose when to return to work. In Hungary state provides monthly
allowances for those women who stay at home with their children up till three years. Most
women take this possibility and often women with more than one child stay at home for 6-10
years. During these years they are cut from the rest of the society, but nowadays Internet
became a means of getting contact with the rest of the world. Originally, the Internet was
mainly used by men, so the topics and issues placed on the Internet was either for
professional purpose or for men’s interest. But recently there are increasing number of sites
about women, and specially child-care issues, and also chat forums for women on maternity
leave where they can discuss all their problems about children, family, and being at home.
In my paper I wish to examine these feminine types of web-sites and femininization of
the Internet through interviewing professional women having small children. In my research I
show and analyze the most often mentioned websites by my interviewees, adding their
comments concerning when and why they read the mentioned webpage.
Introduction
A piece of news: “Net-dependency. A 33-year old Polish woman was condemned and her
four children were separated from her, because it was proven that the mother suffers from
Internet-dependency, she did not look after the children, she spent all her time sitting in front
of the PC. The family – which lived on state allowances – did not pay any of their bills, except
Internet subscription.” (Magyar Narancs, December 14, 2004, pg. 9) This extreme of Internet
dependency is rare, but there is a growing number of women who uses Internet regularly
during their maternity leave. Some even pay less attention to children because they are in an
exciting conversation with women with similar experience. Many Internet sites fulfill the
interest and needs of those women who are separately at home with one or more children.
Internet became less masculine.
Interviewees
Selection of interviewees took place randomly. I had no previous knowledge on my
interviewees’ professions and Internet usages. The only criteria for asking for interviews was
if they stay at home with children on maternity leave. Some women refused interview
because they do not use Internet, though all women I asked for, have Internet connection at
home. One even said that “it is her husband who does not let her use the Internet”.
In terms of Internet usage, I could interview wide range of women: one was basicly
non-user (D) and I met two heavy users (F, B). D reported that they have Internet connection
at home because her husband received it from his work place for free of charge, but she has
no time for that. When she has time, she rather do her hobby (which is not computing). She
searched something once on Internet since she is at home. There was a scandal that a
woman died during giving birth under the supervision of a star gyneacologist, who was also
her doctor. But she found very slow to find anything (they have dial-up system), so she does
not use it any more.
B found friends through Internet, since she adopted her children, and she looked for
similar families, but at the same time opened various topics on a popular site (babanet.hu),
and always the same branch of women joined the “conversation”, so they decided to open
their own inclusive site in order to keep contact, and now they also meet regularly.
F kept web blog about her pregnancy and preparation for her newborn’s arrival, and
put her child’s website to the Internet just after his birth. She chats with her brother through
Internet, and they also have web camera, and they use it to communicate with friends and
family. She does not buy journals and newspapers, just read them on Internet. She follows
daily work through Internet (her child was less than one month old when we talked), and
reads and writes e-mails regularly.
Though all the women I interviewed was on maternity leave (one just returned back),
it turned out that all of them worked while “they were at home”, they all invented a creative
type of distance or part-time work during maternity leave. So in general, my interviewees
were not cut from the rest of the world. When I concluded that then “you are not at home with
children, but you work”, they refused and explained that basicly they are at home, but they
work a little bit, when they need it or have time.
All my respondents reported that they used Internet only when their children were
sleeping, and they stopped using Internet when ever her children started to cry or waked up.
All of my respondents said that looking after children is much more important than anything
else.
Table1. Type of respondents
Profession Number of Length
of
her Previous
children
“staying at home”
work
Current work
A
B
C
D
E
F
economist,
sociologist
teacher
teacher
1
1,5-2 ys
journalist
2 (adopted)
1
back to work (3 ys)
1,5 ys
teacher
teacher
teacher
teacher,
translator,
interpreter
engineer
1
4
5,5 ys
5,5 ys
teacher
translator
1
0,5 y
business
teaching journalism,
freelance journalist
full-time teacher
teaching in summer
camps, studying
sociology
teaching
translating, teaching
designs
business
Feminine, masculine and gender-neutral web-sites
The clear distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ is extremely valid in my following analysis.
Motherhood and giving birth is a biological process and attached to one sex, to females; at
our scientific level, it is only women who can gave birth and can become a mother1. Above
the biological determinism, there are socially constructed gender roles, which are product of
socialization and experience. (Calás, Smircich, 1996: 219)
In my analysis one extreme of websites which are connected with biological sex: the
actual functioning of female body, such as birth, lactation or menstruation. It does not mean
that there is no men who is interested in these topics, since birth became a family event
where both men and women participate, nowadays it is not just a child who is born, but also
mother and father are “born”. Above all, gynaecologist are still very often men, and they can
also be interested in these topics.
The next type of websites are of gendered interested: topics are mainly connected
with social gender roles: child-up-bringing, health, family; or further according to gender
stereotypes, such as home, cooking etc. Though these type of websites have been
mentioned by several interviewees, it turned out that most of them is not often read, or if they
are read, very often by the opposite gender.
Huge proportion of websites are gender-neutral. While 10-15 years ago, Internet was
associated with porno and technical sites, mainly for male interest, nowadays more and more
information and different types of entertainment are on the Internet, but due to the
decentralized nature of world wide web, it is not possible to say it the proportion of porno and
technical sites are decreasing.
Finally there are certain use of Internet, which is typical just because it is more difficult
to go different places with a small child, such as on-line shops, Internet banking. Many
places it is simply impossible to go with a huge carriage, so young mothers are closed to
their homes and their close surroundings, especially in towns, because public transportation
is difficult to use. In this sense, young mother with a baby is in a similar situation as a
disabled person.
What makes a web-site feminine?
It is more easy to give examples than explain femininity and masculinity of certain websites.
One of interviewees (A) mentioned the following sites: www.masok.hu (Others), which is a
website of homosexual movement (known as Pride in many other countries). Though the
main focus of the site are male homosexual topics, but also some lesbian news are
published here.
1
Interestingly, one of my interviewee adopted her children, and in this situation – strictly
speaking – there is no biological determinism of being mother.
As other example of masculine websites – mentioned by a woman – is www.ferfisator.hu
(Men’s tent), which – similarly to feminist ideology – aims to strengthen men in the society
and family. Model movement is the German ‘Mennenarbeit’ groups, and one of their main
ideologist are American Richard Rohrt. This website is just a platform of their communication,
but they organize trainings, and this is their main activity, where they strengthen traditional
male values. On the website they provide ideology of their movement, describe men’s and
women’s spiritual development, and they clearly distingue the recommended type of male
behavior from feminine type of behavior (which is in fashion nowadays according to the
authors) and also from machizmo (which they consider immature).
Websites, which are popular among men, are still different. Sites, which are read by men
known by my interviewees (A, C), are e.g. humorous pages, one example is
www.szanalmas.hu (miserable), where webmasters put funny pictures on the site, and
reader can comment the pictures. The other popular website is www.matula.hu, which
provides place for fun, and are mainly read by men. The difference between the two sites
that the first is mainly written by the readers and the second is edited and written by a stable
group of people. The language of the two sites is similar in that sense that is very informal,
and even often vulgar. Chosen topics are sometimes taboo or politically incorrect, e.g. makes
fun about fat women and the pope’ death, but there are articles or jokes which would have
been published in a normal journal as well.
The often mentioned stereotypical male websites are connected with sex (e.g.
www.machomedia.hu), with cars (e.g. www.totalcar.hu2), with computing (non of my
interviewees could mention examples) or with other technical things. One of my interviewees
mentioned (C) that she was looking for mining torch as Christmas present, and while looking
for torch, she saw several masculine websites connected with mining, fishing or some
military shops, but she could not name any exact sites. Political and news sites were also
mentioned as more masculine than feminine sites, but it turned out that all of my respondents
reads regularly news on Internet. One of my interviewees (B) considered extreme political
parties’ and movements’ sites which are more masculine, but she did not name any.
(Interestingly this respondent and her husband read different political newspapers:
Népszabadság and Magyar Nemzet3.
2
When you pronounce ‘total car’ it has similar sound as ‘totál kár’ in Hungarian, which means
full damage in car accidents.
3
Népszabadság is the political left’s daily news paper and Magyar Nemzet is the political
right’s daily newspaper.
Title
The title of the webpage very often inevitably shows that the main target of readers are
women: e.g. www.noklapja.hu (Women’s Magazine), www.kismama.hu (Young Mother),
www.babanet.hu (Baby Net), www.babaszoba.hu (Children Room), www.szules.hu (Birth),
www.tusarok.hu (High Heels), www.anoezerarca.hu (Thousand Faces of Woman) or
www.velvet.hu.
Reader can also find group of webpages as well: www.noi.lap.hu (Female Pages) or
www.kismama.lap.hu (Young Mother Pages).
Women’s Magazine is oldest magazine in Hungary for female interest. All my
interviewees mentioned that they read on Internet or on paper version. One of my
interviewees (F) mentioned that she start from this page, when she searches for something.
Velvet is a women magazine, which was mentioned by all of my interviewee. This is a
subpage of a popular (and in terms of Internet) old site providing daily news in politics,
science and IT (www.index.hu). Velvet was designed to women readership covering mainly
star gossips, horoscope, fashion, diet, etc. Velvet is different from other women pages in that
it uses more informal and often vulgar language, topics often cover sexual articles, in terms
of vocabulary it is more similar to masculine magazines.
Topics, articles
My interviewees reported change of interest when they became pregnant or when they had
children. New topics are pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, children health, and sometimes
children and women psychology. The main magazines cover these topics: www.kismama.hu4
and www.babanet.hu. Babanet is also widely known, if it is not recommended by other young
mother, reader can quickly find out from search results that many problems which is specially
interesting for pregnant women or young mother is on this page.
There are some specialized websites, e.g. www.szules.hu (Birth),
www.hazipatika.com (Home Pharmacy), www.babaszoba.hu (Children Room), subpage of
www.hazipatika.com. The www.szules.hu propagates birth at home contra birth in hospitals,
which is according to Hungarian legislation now illegal, so only few percentage of women
who take the risk not to go to hospitals; that is why the title of the site is misleading, it does
not cover all questions about birth. One of my interviewees (E) communicates with friends
through this page, since she gave birth at home, and keeps contact with families who also
gave birth at home.
4
This magazine exists in printed version, and web version provides selected articles.
Kismama magazine is widely known, because all pregnant women receive a package which
includes a sample issue. All of my interviewee mentioned that they bought some issues of
Kismama, but they stopped to buy after a while.
Www.hazipatika.com is one of the most popular websites, all of respondents mentioned that
sometimes reads about children diseases in this page. If a young mother search about
certain illness in a browser, it is probably to get to this site. The subpage
(www.babaszoba.hu) deals only with children diseases. Health problems are the most often
mentioned topic for which mothers consult Internet.
After birth and health the next controversial topic is breastfeeding. Nowadays lactation is
propagated by many sources, but anyone who tried to breastfeed a newborn would say it is
easier to say than to do. For this purpose La Leche Liga (American origin organization which
propagates breastfeeding) provides help through Internet and other modes. Many Internet
magazines provide direct ling to this homepage (www.lll.hu).
Colours
Most of the Hungarian homepages targeted to women readership do not use their creativity
much in choosing colors: most of them use pink.
Symbols
Women magazines typically use limited kinds of symbols such as hearts (e.g.
www.noklapja.hu), flowers (www.anoezerarca.hu) and sites for young mothers prefer to use
small babies as symbols (www.kismama.hu, www.babanet.hu). On the coverpage usually
women (either with or without a baby) smile, in this sense masculine and feminine pages are
quite similar, because pages for men also like to put cover girls, though they prefer without
baby and sometimes without clothes as well. Gender-neutral pages put women on the front
page much less often.
Special Needs of women on maternity leave
Families with small children typically buys some products which is rarely bought by other
people, e.g. baby food, baby products, baby clothes. Some women mentioned that she
collected information about products she was planning to buy on the producer websites (e.g.
www.hipp.hu (baby food) and www.avent.hu (baby products) etc.). These websites – of
course – is only one source of information, because they want to sell their products they
show only positive side of the chosen product. One women mentioned that she always asked
other young women about products on forums. Other important source of shopping
information are baby shops’ webpage (e.g. www.minimano.hu), reader can find out opening
hours and the products they sell.
Online shops solve different problems of women on maternity leave: very often it is a
problem to go out and do the shopping with a small baby. It is difficult to go far with baby
carriage with public transportation, it is even more complicated when someone wants to buy
heavy things, or the baby is ill or the weather is bad to go out etc. Some online shops provide
baby products (e. g. www.kekpanda.hu), others sell every day products (e. g.
www.bevasarloszolgalat.hu (Shopping Service), where you can order food or any daily
products and it is transported to home). It is not a real on-ine shop, because you just order
the products, and it is transported and paid afterwards when it is transported. The other
mentioned type of on-line shops are bookshops and secondhand bookshops, young mothers
often uses them (C, E).
One of my interviewees lived in England before, and she mention that they often buy
products in a normal on-line shop, but they usually ask the product to a friend’s address in
England, and ask the friend to send it to Hungary, because their experience that some
package disappear when it is from an on-line shop. The English webshops are different, they
do not just order the product, but they also pay by credit card. Interviewee E said “we got
used to it in England.”
Others – being woman
There are pages provided for women readerships (with or without children), which have two
different trucks. One investigates and writes about being a woman as a spiritual phenomena
(e.g. www.lunanova.hu). The other provides help against discrimination and harrasment (e.g.
www.nane.hu). These pages are not specialized on young mothers, but they both have
topics which is of interest young mothers.
Conclusion
Internet became cheaper and reachable for those who have basic interest, and even one
salary families often can afford to have Internet connection at home. Women on maternity
leave are good target for Internet readership, because they have growing interest of new
things (pregnancy, baby care, illnesses), and very often stay in one place (at home). Their
special interest is very much feminine, and new websites responding this need. The quoted
pages emphasizing femininity by titles, colors, symbols, and of course topics themselves.
These are often not only referring to socially constructed gender, but also biological sex as
well.
Selected literature:
Alvesson, M., Billig Y. D. (1997): Understanding Gender and Organizations, London, Sage
Badinter, E. (1999): A szereto anya. Az anyai érzés története a 17.-20. században,
Csokonai, Debrecen
Calás, M. B., Smircich, L. (1996): From ‘The Woman’s Point of View: Feminist Approaches to
Organization Studies, in.: Clegg, S., Hardy, C., Nord (eds.): Handbook of Organization
Studies, SAGE, London
Halford, S., Savage, M., Witz, A. (1997): Gender, Careers and Organisations, Macmillan
Press Ltd., London
Internet.hu eds.: Dessewffy T., Fábián Z., Z. Karvalics L., Gondolat Kiadó – Infonia
Alapítvány, Budapest 2005