More than 150 years after the Seneca Falls Convention and nearly 40 years after The Feminine Mystique, women have gained equality. On the Internet, that is.

It’s been more than a year now since Jupiter Media Metrix found that women made up just over 50 percent of Web users in the US. And in the time since that study was released, several more have supported the notion that women have now embraced the Web in greater numbers than men. For instance, a study by Nielsen/Net Ratings released last September said the day was fast approaching when more women than men would use the Web during the workday.

As recently as 1996, according to Jupiter Media Metrix, men made up more than 62 percent of Internet users. And statistics on surfing from work were even more male dominated. So the distance that women have come in a short period of cyberspace is dramatic.

But so what if the female prefers e-mail, you may ask? What significance does a female Web audience hold for your Web presence? That depends on whether you have what a woman wants.

Despite their plurality among Internet users, women still lag behind men when the measure is Internet purchasers. According to eMarketer, Inc., women represent only 41 percent of those who have purchased a product using the Internet. This could be attributed to the expected behavioral lag – having embraced the Web later than men did, women need to get comfortable before they begin making purchases.

Still, we’ve come a long way from just a few years ago, when the Internet was still a man’s world and quaint ideas such as iVillage and Oxygen treated women as though they were another species. The numbers should continue to grow, because the Internet offers women certain advantages they have not enjoyed before – as long as Internet marketers are savvy enough to understand what makes them click.

For example, the discomfort and intimidation women complain of in new car showrooms can be mitigated on the Web. On the Internet they can have their questions answered without condescension, or raised eyebrows, because the software at sites like Autobytel and Carbuyer.com doesn’t distinguish between the sexes.

Women still need to juggle their daily activities more than men – to balance their careers, their families, and their personal needs. The ability to browse, shop selectively, and have the product delivered, is worth correspondingly more to women than men. Sites that can cater to this need - by building in added conveniences such as secure and private storage for shopping preferences and electronic reminders (i.e. birthdays) – can win the loyalty and patronage of women.

It would be a mistake, however, for businesses to assume that all products women want sell well over the Internet. One of the paradoxes of the new Internet majority is that products most often purchased by women have represented some of the most sensational failures of eCommerce history: groceries, toys and furniture.

This just demonstrates that the inclination of the buyer cannot overcome the limitations of the medium. Furniture buyers still want to be able to touch the material, put the swatches on the sofa and see the paint chips next to the throw rug. Perhaps that will happen someday also through interactive means, but not for awhile.

One final bit of good news, particularly for eCommerce sites, when it comes to the larger female participation on the Internet: women are more loyal than men. The Jupiter Media Metrix study found that women were much more likely to return to the same sites over and over again, whereas men were more likely to surf for new sites.

So nature seems to extend to cyber: women are inherently loyal. For the eCommerce site, that means lower marketing and acquisition costs, and a shorter road to profitability.

You GO, girls!