I'd noticed this in a vague way without making anything of it, until I encountered Dr. Leonard Shlain in April at the Conference on World Affairs, held at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The invention of the alphabet, in short, interrupted a happy pastoral era and set the hounds of testosterone loose upon us. I have no idea if he's right. What's fascinating is the conclusion he draws for today. The Web, he believes, is tilting the balance back toward women.
Web surfing is a right-brain activity, more closely tied to reverie than to linear reading.
It's based on connections, many of them intuitive, and women are better at connecting, at gathering together, at functioning in communities. While the introduction of writing led to the rise of a patriarchal culture, the Web is a matriarchy waiting to happen. There's anecdotal evidence to support it. Women are shopping more online, and those who tend to clip coupons are leaping joyously upon online price-comparison search engines. Female academics, who sometimes feel isolated or marginalized in male-dominated departments, form communities on the Web.