Oxygen is more important to Sharon Shea than a computer modem --but not by much.
The research analyst from Brighton spends about 10 hours a dayconnected to the Internet, the worldwide computer network. Sheafound her job in cyberspace. Shea has made friends in cyberspace.Shea even sold her red velvet, Victorian-era dress in cyberspace.
"Everything I do, I do through the Internet," Shea gleefullyadmits.
With so many miles on her computer modem's odometer, Shea is by nomeans a typical user. As a woman in cyberspace, however, Shea isbecoming part of an increasingly mainstream medium.
Not long ago, the on-line world was a veritable electronicfraternity, as white as Ivory soap and as male as the Citadel. Butin the past year or so, a little-noticed explosion has shaken thefoundations of the electronic universe, as women and minorities flockto get wired.
Observers say women are being lured into the on-line world byeverything from electronic shopping, "chat" groups and electronicmail to old-fashioned peer pressure. And some experts say thedevelopment of content for minority audiences has helped draw them online.
But perhaps more important, observers say, women and minoritiesare getting wired for many of the same reasons that white males are:"going electronic" is becoming a mainstream necessity, as computerswith modems seep their way into homes, offices and schools.
There is no hard data on the demographics of cyberspace -- whichencompasses both the Internet and such commercial on-line services asAmerica Online and Prodigy. But several recent studies and anecdotalevidence suggest a significant shift toward greater gender and ethnicdiversity.
Even by conservative estimates, the percentage of women on linehas doubled in the past 12 months to about 25 percent. Minorities,too, seem to be scurrying to get their modems humming; most analystsbelieve they now make up about 15 percent of the on-line population.
To be sure, the on-line world is by no means as mainstream asMcDonald's. Predictably for a medium that often requires a fewthousand dollars worth of hardware, most studies show the on-linepopulation to be wealthier, better educated and younger than thegeneral US population. Cyberspace is not a place many poor peoplevisit.
Still, said Anthony Rutkowski, the director of the Virginia-basedInternet Society, "there's finally a strong trend toward diversity."
And if a pat on the back from one of the nation's foremost fashionjournals means you've made it, cyberspace is here to stay.Cosmopolitan magazine -- not normally known for its high-techemphasis -- recently lauded the on-line world as a great way "toorder a new dress from a Beverly Hills boutique for the party you'rethrowing next week" and touted "chat groups" as a way to "throw abash without having to supply refreshments or clean up afterward."
"The floodgate has opened," said Marleen McDaniel, the chiefexecutive at Wire Networks, a San Francisco company that offerson-line services for women.
For minorities, too, going on line is no longer something reservedfor geeks with pocket protectors.
Just look at NetNoir Inc., a San Francisco company that operatesan "Afrocentric" site on both the Internet and America Online.Citing the thousands of users who tap into NetNoir each month,company cofounder E. David Ellington said there is now a "culturalimperative" to go on line.
Godfrey Dogan, a computer consultant who heads a minority planninggroup at the Boston Computer Society, agrees. Blacks, he said, go online to "look for everything from history on Malcolm X . . . toinformation on how to order African clothing."
Just how many minorities are out there is anyone's guess. Most ofthe large on-line services say they do not track the ethnicity oftheir subscribers, and surveys say minorities make up anywhere from10 percent to almost 30 percent of the total user population.
But a recent study by Yankelovich Partners Inc. did come up withthe finding that, among black and Hispanics, women are drasticallyoutpacing men in the move to cyberspace. Black men were found toconstitute just 5 percent of all men who have gone on line sinceOctober, while black women made up 15 percent of all women in thesame group.
While the meaning of that figure may not be entirely clear, ithighlights the on-line boom among women in general, saysYankelovich's J. Walker Smith.
The Yankelovich study, which was conducted among 414 on-lineusers, found that, before October of last year, two-thirds of allpeople on line were men. Yankelovich estimated that women now makeup 43 percent of all on-line users.
While that number is significantly higher than most recentstudies, Smith said "the skew towards men is definitely diminishingover time."
Paula Leventman, assistant dean of engineering at NortheasternUniversity, has a ring-side seat to watch the changes. Leventman,who also serves as director of the university women's programs, saidshe's seen large numbers of female students going on line in the lastyear.
"Everyone around here is getting hooked up," she said.
Ruth Levitsky, an Internet trainer, said the rush to get wired isas much about necessity as it is about accessibility. "There's moreof a sense of panic," Levitsky said, adding that many women think"they have to {go on-line} to keep their jobs."
McDaniel, of Wire Networks, said she's feeling the crunch. Hercompany's World Wide Web home page, an Internet docking station wherewomen can trade ideas and get information, is now drawing around15,000 visitors a month.
By all accounts, the presence of these women is vital to thecommercial viability of the Internet.
Although the findings may have feminists holding their noses, arecent study by Simba Information Inc. of Wilton, Conn., found thatwomen are most likely to use the Internet for shopping and "chatgroups," while men go on line mainly for e-mail and otherwork-related tasks.
For this reason, said Mary Modahl of Cambridge-based ForresterResearch Inc., "women's participation is critical for the success ofon-line shopping."
The rush among women to go on line is by no means uniform.
Several recent studies find that women are joining the Internet --the largely unregulated global network -- more quickly than theeasier-to-use commercial on-line services America Online, CompuServeand Prodigy.
Both America Online and CompuServe services have around an 80-20male-female ratio. Prodigy, which is smaller, says female users makeup about 40 percent of subscribers.
This apparent trend has confounded analysts, who suggest it mightstem from the fact that many women are going on line from work, wherethe Internet is often used. Others suggest that technologicaladvances have made the Internet not only easier to use, but alsotrendy.
Whatever the reasons, Kathryn McCabe, editor of Online Accessmagazine, said women are no longer hesitant to get wired.
"It's not that women couldn't do all the hooking up the software .. . but they just didn't want to go through the hassle," she said."Women have better things to do. Now that it's easier, they'resigning up."SIDEBAR:Race and gender on-lineThere are no generally accepted demographic figures for on-lineusers. Here are the findings from one recent study by YankelovichPartners Inc., a trend-tracking firm that has been following Americanhabits for a quarter century.GLOBE STAFF CHART
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