Women's magazines do a dismal job of covering technology – forgive me if that earth-shattering revelation has caused you to spill your beverage or caused momentary disorientation. This fact will come as a surprise to almost nobody.

Fashion, cosmetics, celebrities, lifestyle and attractive men: These are the only topics that we women care about – at least according to the UK's eight top-selling women's print 'glossies.'

Lady Geek's own analysis of this month's women's magazines (including Glamour, Elle and Marie Claire) exposes a near absence of technology topics or gadgets. We found that on average, fewer than 2% of pages refer to anything tech-related, and not a single page in November's editions has an article primarily about technology.

A curious extraterrestrial anthropologist might thumb through these magazines and deduce that the female of the human species has no interest in the technology around her. Which is simply not true when we look at how she spends her money. The average British woman spends about £279 on beauty and cosmetics but she spends about a third more, £394 on technology products.

By comparison the magazines she reads gives about 20 times as many column-inches to cosmetics than they do for tech.

The disconnect between how the glossy mags choose to fill their pages and how British women actually spend their money suggests that traditional publishers are out of touch with their readership.

Women spend more on smartphones than men, they spend one and a half times as much on technology and influence 57% of new technology purchases. The glossy mags have yet to acknowledge that women are now fully involved as technology consumers.

When I put this accusation to one of the UK's leading glossy-mag editors she responded that her publication did indeed cover technology seriously. As evidence she pointed me to a one-paragraph review of an espresso-maker.

It's ironic that these bastions of feminism, when they do choose to talk about technology, usually end up covering domestic, kitchen or beauty appliances. It's almost as if they truly believe that a woman's place is in the home.

This editor went on to point out that the online editions of all of her magazines did include significantly more technology content – it's only natural to assume that online readers will be more interested in tablets and smartphones than their dead-tree reading counterparts, however this view critically underestimates its readers.

One of the magazines we studied, Glamour seems to recognise the value of advertising with 6.3% coming from tech companies. In this regard the publisher is somewhat ahead of the trend.

Fashion and technology do not have to be worlds apart. All of the major technology companies are experimenting with wearable technology. Next year's market will be flooded with smart-watches, wearable screens and products which integrate electronics into categories of goods normally associated with fashion.

Magazines with a credible voice in both fashion and technology will be better able to inform their readers as these two worlds eventually collide.

Women's magazines are guilty of perpetuating outdated stereotypes that it's not cool, glamorous or fashionable to be interested in gadgets or technology, a message which can be as damaging to young women as that about body image.

The endless pages of thin flawless models make young women frown critically at themselves in the mirror, but the absence of technology unless it's for beauty or baking tells them not to get too curious, or passionate, about 'boys toys'.

Belinda Parmar is the CEO of Lady Geek, a campaigning agency inspiring women to change the world through technology

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