The Father of Invention: Men Tweaking Women’s Wares
Did you ever notice that ours seems to be a self-regulating culture when it comes to gender and stereotypes? When the ways of the world get too masculine, women step in and stir up the waters to get their due, and, so too, when the world veers too heavily toward the feminine, men will step in and make the changes they need to even things out a bit.
The gender pendulum seems to be swinging closer to center right now - with women demanding, and getting, more products that have been reworked to better serve needs/desires that were long since considered more typically “male” (financial services, tools, sporting goods etc), and more men stepping out to claim products that had perhaps been leaning too far toward the feminine.
For example, men are actively changing the mommy space into the parent space - by inventing products that make it easier for them to manage previously considered “mom-specific” tasks. A recent New York Times article by Stephanie Rosenbloom (reg. required) covers the story of a few innovations developed by very involved dads seeking solutions for universal parenting conundrums - an adaptor for babies to drink from common plastic water bottles, less “girly” diaper bags and gear, and a rolling cart contraption that makes lugging car seats through the airport a lot easier.
The trends/research mentioned in Rosenbloom’s piece include the following:
According to a study in 2002 by the Families and Work Institute, a
research group, Generation X fathers (those age 23 to 37 at the time)
spent significantly more workday time caring for and doing things with
their children (an average of 3.4 hours each workday) than Boomer
fathers did (2.2 hours each workday). Generation Y fathers will
continue the trend, the institute predicts.
“This is one of the
strongest trends we’ve seen,” said Ellen Galinsky, the president of the
institute. “When people ask ‘What is the story of your data?’ it’s a
men’s story. Men are really different. It may be an evolution rather
than a revolution. But it really is a change.”
Generation Y, especially, grew up in a more gender neutral world, so this pendulum swing toward men’s involvement in parenting and other “female” arenas should be no surprise. And, for marketers the trend can’t be ignored. From razors and deodorant, to homes, lawn mowers, flat screen televisions and cars, you can’t make assumptions about who is doing the buying or using. The younger generations in particular aren’t listening to the labels or categories previously and arbitrarily assigned to goods and services.
Whether men or women parent new products, the point is that today’s consumer will likely make whatever the gizmo is into his or her own. Parents of infants and toddlers are clearly taking things into their own hands - and consumers of your goods will do the same.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
You have been tagged for The Personal Development List. (See my site for details), I would love for you to participate.
August 28th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Judy Rosener, Grad School Professor of Management at UCI, Irvine calls it “The Paradox of Gender”
- When attributes or behaviors associated with women are considered negative or of little value, gender is seen as relevant.
- When attributes or behaviors associated with women are considered positive or valuable, gender is seen as irrelevant.
September 17th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Parenting with new perspectives
Innovation is a funny business. Often, the people who just started thinking about a subject are the ones who come up with tons of new ideas.Andrea Learned at Learned on Women recently wrote about this very subject, even if she