NewsBytes: Podcasting Trends, Gender Trends for Home Buyers, and The Gendered Workplace
1) Trendsspotting.com (yes, two “s’s”) gives a good look, including a comprehensive list of resources, at whether or not podcasting is the tool it has been cracked up to be. On the gender side of things: Men continue to be more likely than women to download podcasts; 22% of online men compared with just 16% of online women report ever having downloaded a podcast. However, men and women are equally likely (3%) to download podcasts on a typical day. I wonder how many people, no matter their gender, actually listen to 100% of the podcasts they download – THAT would be the question.
2) An Obeo survey has confirmed that women take longer and do a lot more under-the-radar (pre-real estate agent contact) research when in a home buying process. Two of the findings that speak to that: 41 percent of women surveyed began their search for a new home on-line, while 25 percent of all males did the same; and, more men (28.5 percent) initiated their search by contacting a real estate agent. Interesting to see that in some cases you can’t assume that women need a “human touch” necessarily. I imagine this might be similar in the car buying process as well – women do a lot of preparatory exploration of facts/figures/photos before entering what may feel like the actual negotiation stage (once an agent is involved, there tends to be no going back…)
3) Women in the workforce should be doing “shock therapy” to train themselves away from caring if they get negative feedback and toward forcing the issue of a pay raise, among other things. An interesting piece by Hannah Seligson in the New York Times includes this: I used to think that perfection was the pathway to success. Not so, according to women I have interviewed who have reached the apex of their professions. Rather, it can lead to paralysis. Women, I have found, can let perfectionism stop them from speaking up or taking risks. For men, especially if they are thick-skinned, the thought of someone telling them “no” tends not to be viewed as earth-shattering. Perhaps men can learn from women about web-like interaction/connections in the workplace while women can learn from men about taking those hardline stands to get what they deserve. (Allow for new learning, my friends – always.)
