Women Are Not as Optimistic About Tech

A recent report by GfK found that women are less optimistic about the effect technology has on society. Around half of U.S. women surveyed were optimistic about technology’s role in society while, on average, 57 percent of men were optimistic. Millennial men and women held views that were close to the averages for both genders, with a clear break between men and women.

For generation Z, there was a much starker divide. Only about a third of women, who were born after 1998, held optimistic views about how technology will impact society, while the men in that age group were right around the average for the wider survey.

Generation Z’s deviation in public opinion could be the result of their digital nativity. People born after 1998 have grown up surrounded by computers and the internet, meaning they may be more skeptical of the effect technology has on society. The pessimism from generation Z women specifically, and the increased skepticism from women generally may be related to the fact that women are more likely to face gender-based harassment online.