In the 1949 movie Adam’s Rib, Katherine Hepburn played a stylish and competent lawyer. This film was one of the first to show that a woman can have a successful career and still be happily married. Today, the evolution of a new managerial class of women has forced marketers to change their traditional assumptions about women as they target this growing market. For example, Suzuki is going out of its way to appeal to the growing number of women in India who are achieving financial independence and buying their own cars. Its Zen Estilo (Estilo means “style” in Spanish) model comes in eight colors, including purple fusion, virgin blue, and sparkling olive.

These changes have forced marketers to reexamine their strategies. For example, most sporting goods manufacturers have long sold products for women, but this often meant simply creating an inferior version of the male product and slapping a pink label on it. Then the companies discovered that many women were buying products intended for boys because they wanted better quality, so some of them figured out that they needed to take this market segment seriously. Burton Snowboard Company was one of the early learners. When the company started to offer high-quality clothing and gear made specifically for women, female boarders snapped them up. Burton also changed the way it promoted these products. It redesigned its Web site after getting feedback from female riders. Now, models in the women’s section are shot from the bottom looking up, which makes them look more empowered. In contrast, the photos in the men’s section feature tighter shots of the gear itself, since Burton’s research showed that males are more interested in the technical details.

Some smart marketers have figured out that products men traditionally love appeal to women as well. In the automotive industry, they are discovering that a growing number of women spend big bucks to add extra horsepower to their cars, along with 17-inch wheels, custom racing seats, and other accessories. Although attributes such as safety, security, and reliability still appeal to women, like men they are increasingly drawn to power, speed, and hot looks. The so-called tuner industry, which includes aftermarket products such as spoilers, Xenon headlights, and turbochargers, is feeling this change—women now buy almost 25 percent of the $2.2 billion in merchandise and services that car freaks purchase each year.

Similarly, the high-tech industry launched a “Technology is a girl’s best friend” campaign to entice women to buy more electronics products. This makes sense, because the Consumer Electronics Association estimates that about 75 percent of consumer-electronics purchasing decisions involve women. Gateway even managed to get a pink laptop computer prominently placed in the movie Legally Blonde 2. Other manufacturers are coming out with products ranging from headphones to cell phone covers in pink and other feminine colors to attract women. Palm’s Zire Handheld PDA emphasizes its clear packaging and simple name. Palm’s new focus evidently worked: For the first time with any Palm product, more than half of Zire buyers are women.

And women are invading that bastion of maleness we call video games. They make up about 40 percent of the total gaming audience. Some 64 percent of online gamers in the United States are female according to a recent Nielsen study. And in the emerging mobile-game market, women account for 55 percent of players. For example, Buena Vista Games targets women aged 18 to 49 with a PC game based on Desperate Housewives.

Sex roles constantly evolve. In a complex society like ours, we often encounter contradictory messages about “appropriate” behavior. We can clearly see this in the messages girls have been getting from the media for the past several years: It’s cool to be slutty. Role models like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and even Bratz dolls convey standards about how far preteens and teens should go in broadcasting their sexuality. Now, as these messages seem to go over the top (at least in the eyes of some concerned parents), we start to see early signs of a backlash. At the Pure Fashion Web site, girls get style tips including skirts and dresses that fall no more than four fingers above the knee and no tank tops without a sweater or jacket over them. Several other sites, such as ModestApparelUSA.com and ModestByDesign.com, advocate a return to styles that leave almost everything to the imagination. Is our culture moving from a celebration of “girls gone wild” to “girls gone mild”?