Are women going further and faster in dot.com land? Or are their successes as fickle as the paper fortunes they were built on? Imogen O'Rorke takes a walk on the E-side

It looked like a cinch. Pretty face with brains behind and loads of charisma to go? Just find yourself someone like Brent Hoberman (Lastminute) to do the figures and you were on your way to becoming a legend. Women were achieving in two years what would have taken 20 in any other business. Glass ceilings? Pah! The only glass ceiling you'd ever be hitting was the one beneath your feet after your third bottle of champagne during the £500,000 launch party in some impossibly cool 15th-floor bar.

Women came pouring into new media jobs at all levels during that honeymoon period. Dot.coms, launching a dozen a week, were desperate for old media skills in design, sales & marketing, production, and editorial. Experience was rewarded with golden handshakes, eye-popping salaries and seductive share options. Who wanted a stuffy desk job when you could come into work dressed like you'd never left home and joke around with your boss who was probably the same age as you? One woman who used to baby sit for Ready2's Susannah ended up running their beauty channel with her best friend, aged 22, and went on to a £30k+ salary. There were no rules - just a wealth of opportunity.

So what happened? Well, first came the almighty tech stock crash in May 2000, then the ensuing dot.com recession. In November 2000 Internet start-ups were going down at the rate of ten a week, and for the last six months the sector has been on shaky ground. Of those dot.com divas, only one (Martha) is still in business although there are many other, lesser-known survivors: Sonia Lo, CEO of eZoka; Becky Lancashire, MD of Clickmusic; Carol Dukes, CEO of ThinkNatural.com; Shah Wasmund, CEO of MyKindaplace.com; and Jane Proctor, founder and editorial director of PeopleNews.com to name a handful.

Next page: they are not alone

Now the hype train has derailed, it's a good time to take stock. Kathryn Bullock, founder of e-women, a networking group that connects women in tech-based businesses, is still very positive about new economy opportunities. She has just returned from an IBM conference Women on the Move, which was set up in response to the explosion of female entrepreneurs (nearing 1m) and the number of new business websites run by women (37%). She firmly believes the net has liberated women wanting to set up businesses from home.

'It's cheaper and easier on the web and because you've got the visibility, you can compete in the marketplace with as little as £50k.' IBM's research suggests women are more likely than men to get their web project funding from friends and family. In other words, instead of seeking out the big venture capital they opt for the DIY out-of-the-bedroom route. Online networking for women (members forums such as e-women, Webgrrls and We Gather) is of vital importance. 'Networking makes it easier for us to track down opportunities for funding, resources and help. It also allows women working at home to interact in a virtual work environment,' says Bullock.

Sonia Lo, who was a telecommunications consultant and venture capitalist (VC) before starting eZoka, praises the web because, 'You can be anyone you want to be, totally anonymous, which is useful if you are a female consultant in a male-dominated industry.' Lo has come up against outdated attitudes towards women when trying to raise money. 'Female-led new media businesses are often so far outside VC's risk profiles that you may as well be creatures from another planet.' But she still maintains, 'It's never been easier for women'.

Next page: really?

Carol Dukes would have to disagree. She has worked in Internet publishing since 1994, has been managing director of EMAP online and Carlton online, and before that in satellite and cable - the new media of its time. 'If you look at the actual numbers of women doing start-ups, there are very few of us - maybe three out of 100 companies'. Dukes thinks the dot.com fever produced a 'disproportionate amount of hype' about women going further faster. 'And is it all healthy? We are still treated like a freak show: "Check it out! It's a woman running an Internet company!" There are women opening hairdressing salons, shops and PR agencies and nobody turns a hair'. Dukes, who keeps a 50:50 gender balance at ThinkNatural, is also highly sceptical about the romanticised idea of new media businesses that are run by women being characterised by a more modern 'feminised' approach. 'The demands of any media business are that it will be cut throat, creative and highly competitive,' she says.

The love affair between women and technology, as promoted by the likes of IBM, AOL and Sony, is wearing thin. Far from easing women's burden, many at e-women now find that technology complicates their lives. According to Bullock, 'The work-life balance is more difficult now that boundaries are blurred. Some of our members feel the net just adds to their stress levels and daily work. They just never switch off.'

At an executive level, Sonia Lo finds switching off almost impossible. She works an 80-hour week and the fundraising trail takes her abroad three times a week: 'It's not great for my personal life. I need three weeks warning to take an evening off to go to a cultural event'. She meets men all the time but 'they either work for me, are funding me or they're non-starters'. And yes the biological issue is apparent as she's now reaching her mid-thirties. 'Twenty-five to forty-five are your wealth creation years which squarely overlap with our reproduction years. You make a hard lifestyle choice.'

Next page: how to make it work

Her advice for anyone who wants to start up is sobering: 'If you have a burning idea and have researched the market place fully (and no one's done anything offline), then do it, but map it against your personal circumstances. Don't underestimate your appetite for the task. It is bloody hard work, unglamorous and physically exhausting. Many people, if they knew what was really involved, might ultimately prefer the comfort and security of a corporate salary.'

As with any new sensation, new very soon gives way to same old story. And for many women who joined the e-revolution the landscape is now looking pretty much like business as usual.