NOT THE STYLE PAGES: What's wrong with this picture? Looking for feminism on the internet.

By Katherine Burgdorf

If I asked you where in the world are people most searching the word 'feminism' online, what would you say? Would you guess it was a developed country, or a developing country? A country where feminism had a stronghold, or a country where equality for women is still an aspiration? Do you think the word is being searched for more, or less, in 2013 than in 2004? What do searches for 'feminism' in Australia look like, or Britain? And what happens when we replace the word feminism with 'rape'?

In a burst of inspiration last week I thought I'd use Google Trends to find out. All the usual data health warnings apply. These trends are based on Google searches around the world with limited flex on methodology. Sadly, we don't have the luxury of time to analyse or cross check the data to draw many conclusions or correlate data with socio-economic or political regimes but I bet any amount of money it throws up some interesting questions. It's a tiny, tantalising glimpse into the world's interest in one of the great movements toward human equality.

This first graph (below) shows the declining popularity of the search term 'feminism' from 2004 (the earliest data) to 2013. The number '100' in Google Trends represents the search peak, with all other numbers in relation to that peak. In this data set the peak looks to be in mid-2004. What's interesting too, is the very uniform peaks and troughs from 2006 onwards, as if the search term is seasonal.

Trends in searches of the word 'feminism' on the internet 2004-2013.

The tool shows us that when people are searching for the word 'feminism' they are often also searching for terms like 'feminism definition', 'what is feminism' and 'feminism theory'. The terms 'first wave' and 'second wave' feminism are also common related searches suggests internet interest in the word might most often relate to academic study rather than a general interest in the subject.

So which country do you think most of the searches for the word 'feminism' originated from in that period 2004-2013? Here's the answer:

Countries where the internet search term 'feminism' was most prevalent. Zimbabwe in top spot (2004-2013)

Nope, I didn't guess Zimbabwe either. But completely by chance on the day I started to look at Google Trends I also stumbled across a Bloomberg news story from January this year which said Zimbabwe may become the world’s first country to pass a law requiring that women hold at least 50 percent of posts in parliament and other government bodies, according to a new constitution. The timing of the search trends doesn't correlate with this political development in any way but it's an interesting pair of facts.

Three African countries appear in the top 10. I'm relieved Australia's in there. I'm not surprised to see the UK in the top 10, but I thought it would be higher up. I expected to see other Scandi countries in the top 10, but then, if you live by feminism ideals, why do you need to search for them? France is a flat-line when it comes to the search term, and I can see their Gallic shrugs saying, 'What do we need zis 'feminizm' for? We 'ave it already, every day.'

Now for the killer chart. Here's a heatmap showing where the word 'feminism' is searched for as an internet term in Australia. It does rather prompt the question: 'So what's wrong with this picture?'

Yes, that's right. No one has searched for the word 'feminism' in the Northern Territory. Or, to be datapolitically correct, not enough people have searched for the term 'feminism' in the Northern Territory for it to be shaded even the palest blue. Perhaps we should write to them? 'Dear Northern Territory, It has come to our attention....' But maybe I'm jumping to the wrong conclusion. Territorian women are probably tough as nails and too busy wrestling crocs to need to look up 'feminism' on the internet. They've literally got bigger reptiles to fry. Or it could be the internet isn't on in the NT yet.

Here's the same view of the UK. Wales leads with the most searches, followed by England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

If we switch to UK cities over the same time period, it looks like this:

While Wales leads the country charts, Cardiff, the capital city, only sneaks in at 10th place. Does this mean people in smaller Welsh towns are, collectively, searching the term 'feminism' more than their capital counterparts? The cities on the list are not particularly surprising. Most have universities which could explain it. But it's the absence of one city which is interesting, and that's London. The political, media, cultural and financial heart of the UK isn't interested in looking up feminism.

So what if we switch to the word 'rape'? Below is a chart of worldwide searches of the word rape from 2004 to 2013.

It's largely flat until the start of 2013 when it spikes significantly. The rise in line with the high profile rape of the 23-year-old student in New Delhi, India, on 16th December 2012. The letter 'A' on the same chart flags up the news coverage - just ahead of the Presidential elections - which followed US Congressman Todd Akin's comments that women's bodies knew how to avoid pregnancies from 'real rapes' which is why legal abortion wasn't needed (or welcome) in the US. At the time we weren't sure what we were so confused about...the wacky science from a politician sitting on a House science committee or the not so subtle subtext that 'real rapes' were different from other rapes which are .....not so bad? Or happen when the victim was drinking? Or were just plain fictional or...whatever. When the historians come in 3000 years time I do hope they know we thought this guy was a speciman crackpot in 2012.

Here's a chart showing the rise in the searches for rape in India over a two year period which includes the 2012 attack. The relative difference between the peak, in December 2012, and the historic 'steady state' search levels is considerable.

Here's the search trend for 'feminism' in India over the past 12 months. The peak comes in January 2013, at the same time as the trial for the now infamous attack.

Without doubt the saddest exercise of the week was looking at what related terms people searched for when searching for 'rape'.

Not much in the way of analysis needed there.

And so we have it - Google's internet interest in feminism. Is it all 'lies, damn lies and statistics?' Probably. And even with a hundred years of analysis I doubt data's ability to draw many useful conclusions, but I love it for provoking questions. Who is searching for feminism in Kenya? Will Zimbabwe take a leading step in insisting half its parliament are women. Is it conceivable that India will change? A country which had been led by a woman, but where other data in other media reports say a woman is raped every twenty minutes. It's only ever a window.

Whatever your view on data I didn't want to leave this blog on the sad trends of the last chart so here's a special set of charts on a subject close to the heart of Notthestylepages. I'm not so sure there isn't some good news in this set.

CHART 1. Popularity of the search term 'big pants' 2004-2013.