Women Found More Powerful than Men in Metaverse But with Less Power

A new study by McKinsey & Company, a consulting company, revealed that women are spending more time in the metaverse than men.

McKinsey’s study showed five early indicators impacting women in the virtual world, raising a gender inequality issue, particularly in the leadership creating and setting metaverse events and standards.

The study pointed out that women are still representing a minority in the metaverse, just like the tech sector as a whole. It described the men’s control of the entrepreneurial capital and the CEO roles as disproportionate.

According to the respondents, the study’s results found that 41% of women used or participated in the metaverse for more than one year, compared to 34% of men. About 35% of the examined women said they spend more than three hours per week in the digital space, compared with 29% of men, although McKinsey asked about 1,020 men and 896 women.

Moreover, women are spending more time on the metaverse in its hybrid use. The hybrid use of the metaverse includes participating in activities such as shopping, fitness, live events, gaming, and education via AR/VR technologies. Female users excelled over their male counterparts in all the aforementioned activities.

However, men users surpassed women in taking part in purely digital experiences such as trading NFTs, attending social events, and gaming.

The study found after asking about 450 female executives that 60% of the women have implemented at least two-metaverse related initiatives in their businesses. Compared with their men counterparts in implementing metaverse-related initiatives, women executives surpassed with a percentage of 20%. These initiatives are related to product design, marketing, and employee learning and development.

Despite these figures, which come in favor of women in the metaverse world, men dominate metaverse firms that received a higher share of funding over the past five years. Men-led companies received funding worth $107 billion compared to only $5 billion for women-led companies.

Also, the leadership roles at metaverse companies are manipulated by men with a percentage of 90% while women lead metaverse companies with a percentage ranging between 8% to 10%, showing an existing gender gap in the leadership roles.