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Women in India are carving their own space on Twitter and are engaging in a diverse range of topics from passion points and interests to shared challenges, according to independent research commissioned by Twitter ahead of International Women’s Day.
A quantitative survey amongst 700 women on Twitter was carried out, along with the qualitative curation and analysis of 5,22,992 tweets sent out by female Twitter accounts between January 2019 and February 2021 by women across 10 Indian cities.
According to the findings of the research, nine dominant conversational themes have emerged from an in-depth look at the Tweets for conversations.
Passion points and interests emerged as the top conversation theme taking a 24.9 per cent share of the conversations on the platform, followed by current affairs (20.8 per cent), celebratory moments (14.5 per cent), communities (11.7 per cent) and social change (8.7 per cent).
“While conversations around Everyday chatter and Celebratory Moments saw the highest engagement in terms of average number of Likes and replies per Tweet, Passion Points and Interests, Communities and Shared challenges were the most Retweeted categories,” as per the report.
The conversations around these themes were led by various cities.
“Chennai led conversations around Celebratory moments, Creative showcase and Everyday chatter, Bengaluru dominated chatter around Communities, Social change and Shared challenges, while Guwahati fronted conversations around Passion points and interests and Current affairs,” as per the report.
Overall, 33 per cent of women said that they use Twitter while commuting, 29 per cent use it during breakfast, 24 per cent use it upon waking up and 22 per cent use it just before bed.
Here are the most talked-about conversation themes among women on Twitter in India:
Passion points and interests:
From Kpop to cricket, women discussed their passions on Twitter. Guwahati, Lucknow and Pune lead the pack.
Within this category, women talked about various interests with the most popular topics being fashion (30 per cent), books (28 per cent), beauty (25 per cent), movies and TV (21 per cent), music (18 per cent), food (18 per cent), technology (17 per cent), art (17 per cent) and sports (14 per cent). 41 per cent of women said that they discovered a new interest on Twitter.
Twitter Topic further helped these users. There are about 6,000 followable Topics today, Twitter said.
Current affairs
Women on the platform tried to stay informed by keeping themselves updated with current affairs. Guwahati and Delhi lead the conversation. 20.8 per cent of women users Twitter to stay informed on local and international news. Tweets about #StudentExams, #COVID19 related updates and #DelhiElections2020 dominated the conversation in this category.
Celebratory moments
Women tweeted out their little joys in life from professional to personal wins. Chennai, Kolkata and Madurai lead the party.
14.5 per cent of women said that they loved sharing their every day wins on Twitter. They do so through hashtags such as #WomenWhoWin, #TheMomentOfLift, #SmallWins and #EverydayJoys.
Communities
Women took to Twitter to connect with others in the community be it #WomenInScience or #GirlGamers.
Women (11.7 per cent) are reaching out and building virtual communities on the platform with hashtags such as #WomenInScience, #WomenInTech, #WomenInMarketing, and #GirlGamers. While 41 per cent of women have sought advice/tips/recommendations on the service, 37 per cent have given advice/tips/recommendations to others and 32 per cent have gained real-life friendship(s), as per the report.
Social change
Women (8.7 per cent) are also tweeting about and leading conversations on social change on the platform through online movements such as #SheforShe and #TimesUp. Bengaluru, Guwahati, and Delhi lead the way in discussions around critical matters.
Shared challenges
Women tweeted about everyday challenges from #Parenting to #WorkingFromHome, seeking solace in online conversations. Women in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai were the most open about their realities and challenges.
“In India, women (6.9 per cent) Tweet about challenges, be it working from home with kids or being a single mom. While personal, these shared experiences are relatable, allowing them to build a shared intimacy in public,” the report said.
Indian women also leveraged Twitter to showcase their creativity with hashtags such as #Art, #Photography, #Dance, #CulinaryArts etc., engage in personal conversations from #ModernDating to mental health, and more apart from the everyday chatter with conversations ranging from #SareeTwitter to #LockdownRecipes.
Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director at Twitter India, said, “We commissioned this research to build our understanding about women on Twitter and were inspired by the results. Their communities and conversations highlight the uniqueness and diversity of the service. Access to a free and open Internet has made it possible for everyone to express themselves freely without barriers. As a service our goal is to build on this foundation, giving people new ways to converse, form communities and control who can interact with them in a conversation.”
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