IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v78y2023i8p1386-1395..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital Gender Gap in the Second Half of Life Is Declining: Changes in Gendered Internet Use Between 2014 and 2021 in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Mareike Bünning
  • Anna Schlomann
  • Nicole Memmer
  • Clemens Tesch-Römer
  • Hans-Werner Wahl

Abstract

ObjectivesThe main purpose of the study has been to examine changes in Internet use among men and women in 3 age groups (midlife, early old age, and advanced old age) between 2014 and 2021. We tested 2 hypotheses: The complementary hypothesis posits that online activities reproduce gender differences in offline activities. The compensatory hypothesis posits that women are catching up over time in male-typed activities as Internet access approaches saturation for both genders.MethodsWe used representative, longitudinal data from the German Ageing Survey collected in 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2021 (n = 21,505, age range 46–90 years). We ran logistic regressions on Internet access and Internet use for 4 different gender-typed activities: social contact (female-typed), shopping (gender-neutral), entertainment (male-typed), and banking (male-typed).ResultsBetween 2014 and 2021, women drew level with men in Internet access. Gender differences in all 4 forms of Internet use declined considerably between 2014 and 2021. Women overtook men in using the Internet for social contact. In older age groups, men held the lead regarding online banking. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, women caught up to men in Internet use, especially for entertainment.DiscussionOverall time trends support the complementary hypothesis. By contrast, the finding that women have been catching up in some male-typed online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic supports the compensatory hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Mareike Bünning & Anna Schlomann & Nicole Memmer & Clemens Tesch-Römer & Hans-Werner Wahl, 2023. "Digital Gender Gap in the Second Half of Life Is Declining: Changes in Gendered Internet Use Between 2014 and 2021 in Germany," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 78(8), pages 1386-1395.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:78:y:2023:i:8:p:1386-1395.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbad079
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Almenberg, Johan & Dreber, Anna, 2015. "Gender, stock market participation and financial literacy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 140-142.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Bannier, Christina E. & Neubert, Milena, 2016. "Gender differences in financial risk taking: The role of financial literacy and risk tolerance," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 130-135.
    3. Cupák, Andrej & Fessler, Pirmin & Schneebaum, Alyssa, 2021. "Gender differences in risky asset behavior: The importance of self-confidence and financial literacy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    4. Fey, Jan-Christian & Lerbs, Oliver & Schmidt, Carolin & Weber, Martin, 2020. "Risk attitude and capital market participation: Is there a gender investment gap in Germany?," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-080, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Niklas Gohl & Peter Haan & Claus Michelsen & Felix Weinhardt, 2022. "House Price Expectations," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1162, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    6. Bechly, Paul Lorin, 2019. "An Examination of Demographic Differences in Obtaining Investment and Financial Planning Information," OSF Preprints vn8yj, Center for Open Science.
    7. Alessia Sconti, 2020. "Financial Literacy in Italy: What works among millennials most?," Working Papers 01/2020, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    8. Bazley, William J. & Bonaparte, Yosef & Korniotis, George M., 2021. "Financial Self-awareness: Who Knows What They Don’t Know?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    9. Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Naheed Rabbani & Yoshihiko Kadoya, 2021. "Can Financial Literacy Explain Lack of Investment in Risky Assets in Japan?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-12, November.
    10. John A. Turner & Bruce W. Klein, 2021. "Improving on Defaults: Helping Pension Participants Manage Financial Market Risk in Target Date Funds," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Yating Chuang & John Chung-En Liu, 2020. "Who wears a mask? Gender differences in risk behaviors in the COVID-19 early days in Taiwan," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(4), pages 2619-2627.
    12. Karla Cordova & Markus M. Grabka & Eva Sierminska, 2022. "Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 755-810, October.
    13. Batool Muhammad Hussain & Umair Baig & Vida Davidaviciene & Ieva Meidute-Kavaliauskiene, 2021. "A Thoughtful Insight on Women Entrepreneur’s Investment Attitude," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-19, December.
    14. Alessia Sconti, 2020. "Reality or Perception? Financial Literacy Survey and Behavioral Insights," Working Papers 08/2020, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    15. Sierminska, Eva & Piazzalunga, Daniela & Grabka, Markus M., 2018. "Transitioning towards more equality? Wealth gender differences and the changing role of explanatory factors over time," GLO Discussion Paper Series 252, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Eberle, Mira & Oberrauch, Luis, 2023. "What a difference three years of economics education make: Evidence from lower stream schools in Germany," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    17. Jaanika Meriküll & Merike Kukk & Tairi Rõõm, 2021. "What explains the gender gap in wealth? Evidence from administrative data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 501-547, June.
    18. Bechly, Paul, 2018. "An Examination of Demographic Differences in Obtaining Investment and Financial Planning Information," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 233014, October.
    19. Minh-Hoang Nguyen & Quy Van Khuc & Viet-Phuong La & Tam-Tri Le & Quang-Loc Nguyen & Ruining Jin & Phuong-Tri Nguyen & Quan-Hoang Vuong, 2022. "Mindsponge-Based Reasoning of Households’ Financial Resilience during the COVID-19 Crisis," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, November.
    20. Leora F. Klapper & Annamaria Lusardi & Georgios A. Panos, 2012. "Financial Literacy and the Financial Crisis," NBER Working Papers 17930, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:78:y:2023:i:8:p:1386-1395.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.