While the Indian housewife has been assiduously tracked and her media habits traced by eager advertisers, the Indian working woman has been dodging definition. A recent study by Kartik Iyer, President- Initiative and Madhavi Goswami- Intellect Research & Technologies, Lintas Media Services, however shows that the woman in office exhibits media habits that are closer to her male counterparts than to her homemaker sisters.

Media consumption patterns of working women are closer to those of men rather than those of non working women

The number of working women exposed to press is 104 per cent more than non-working women is one of the significant findings of the study. Working women also consume 49 per cent more cinema than non-working women and four times more Internet than non-working women, the study says.

Televison viewing patterns of working men and women are similar, those of non working women are different

Interestingly though, the television and radio habits are not very different for both working as well as non-working women but working women are much higher on Press, Cinema and Internet. The study, based on figures thrown up by the Indian Readership Survey and analysed using the ESPRIT consumer segmentation and mapping tool of Intellect, reveals that the media reach for working women mirrors that of their male counterpart. Except for cinema, the media habits of both these demographics are quite similar. The study tracked target group SEC AB, 10L+ HHs, Females Age 20-40 yrs as a base, using

Even in terms of day part viewership, the pattern of working women conforms to that of working men while non-working women show a difference in the viewership. For working men and women, the peak is in the prime time band while non-working women peak both during the afternoon time band as well as the prime time band.

Except for cinema viewing, media use patterns of working men and women tally

The time spent in a day on watching television again coincides for working men as well as working women. Working women spend less time watching television than non- working women do. This pattern of being 'like working men' is apparent across other parameters of media consumption too such as language of media consumption, genre preferences, etc, the study shows.

The analysis garnered has been used to determine the involvement of women in decision making (particularly the role of working women), and the current gender skew in advertising for various categories. The TAM TV Adex database has been probed to understand the existing gender skew in advertising spends. Correspondence analysis was done to examine the skews in ad duration across various categories with respect to different genres of channels and hence target groups.

The average amount of time spent in television viewing is nearly the same for all three, however

The study analysed ad durations of various categories vis-?-vis the channels that they are advertised on, thus reflecting the target audience being advertised to and found that TV spends are being targeted at both the male and female audience but the skew is more towards males. Household durables such as televisions, refrigerators, cars/ jeeps etc are being advertised to both genders but they have a skew towards the males. The study concludes that media planners need to include women as a part of the audience that needs to be advertised to incase of major household durables can not only impact the decision making process for the consumer, but also optimise the spends for the advertiser