WOMEN: Eurostar’s new lady tablet may not be as sexist as most Westerners think.
By Isabel De La Garza, Senior Writer
According to Eurostar, their ePad Femme is the “world’s first tablet made exclusively for women.” The device comes only in pink and is preloaded with several apps that would interest women, including pregnancy trackers, cycle calendars, two yoga apps, two recipe apps, a clothing size converter, two grocery list apps and even a “women’s assistant” app, the functions of which are unspecified. Many people question the need for a simpler, less powerful tablet as Eurostar already has more powerful tablets in many other colors. Eurostar believes that this tablet will definitely aid women who “might find difficulties in terms of downloading these applications.”
So far about 7,000 of the devices have sold since its debut in October, most of the which husbands have purchased for their wives. While it may be a unique item that focuses on the needs of a particular group, such as the Jitterbug cell phone (which caters to the elderly), the ePad Femme has been seen as more of an embarrassing pink perpetuator of gender stereotypes.
What many do not realize is that the company is based in the Middle East and is currently only marketing the new tablet to that region and Asia. Due to differences in these cultures, women have a different role in society than American women. They are treated differently and are held to different expectations. For them, this type of tablet may be considered normal. They may feel that women do not want such a complicated device.
However, for Middle-Eastern women, this is undeniably a good thing. Many Middle-Eastern women stay home most of the day because they are often restricted from walking alone without a male relative (husbands, fathers or brothers). As a result, they have a lot of free time. If they were to acquire a tablet, they would probably view it as a nice time occupier. In fact, most do not see the device as offensive at all. They view it as some women view women’s magazines: entertaining, informative and helpful. It also saves time to not have to find the apps in the first place if they were going to download the apps eventually anyway.
The other upside is that Middle-Eastern women are actually much more knowledgeable about technology than Eurostar thinks. These tablets may actually enable them to socialize outside of their homes, with women all over the world who also use these apps, and learn about things that are going on and get out of their little home bubble, at least for a little while. In the long term, it may even help facilitate a progressive change of women’s roles in that region. It will take time, no doubt, but it just might be the first step.