Men have dominated the Internet for several years. Much of the initial technology was developed by men, many of the initial Internet pioneers were men and most of the users were men for several years.

Now, though, a new study shows us that this year women will outnumber men online. The research shows that 51.8% of all Internet users are female. By 2012 that will have grown slightly to 52.01%. This is excellent news because it shows the Internet is now representative of the real world population.

There are more women than men on the planet – there are always slightly more females born. This is for several biological and possibly evolutionary reasons. But whatever lies behind it, the population in general has slightly more women than men in it.

So, the Internet now has the same proportion of men and women as the real world. It has taken several years to get there, but it now suggests that we will begin to get a more balanced Internet world – less “blokish”, for instance. It’s also worth noting that most bloggers are female and you’ll discover that in the real world there is a higher proportion of female to male writers. So, we are seeing the real world reflected online much more closely than in the relatively recent past. For anyone running a business this is important; if your business has succeeded because it has adapted itself to the male dominance of the Internet, you need to change tactics, because your audience now includes many more females than ever before – in fact the greatest proportion of your online audience will be women.