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Yep I just got back from a 7-hour or so long wargaming session. Historically I'd say the participation has been about 99% male. There was actually 1 female ther

Yep I just got back from a 7-hour or so long wargaming session. Historically I'd say the participation has been about 99% male. There was actually 1 female there today, but the other 10+ people were males. This is extremely common. And I've never heard any participant in this hobby complain about it or point out oppression/repression/supression/conspiracy. The simple fact is that if more females wanted to play wargames, and got out there and played them, there would be more females playing, and thus they would not be able to say they feel dissuaded by the gender ratio. Arrington's point was: maybe this is the natural gender ratio (or very close to it, plus/minus some small percentage, however you could possibly deduce that), and the women in these cases just have to suck it up and deal. Just like a man would have to suck it up and deal if he wanted to work at a Great Clips or as a cosmetics salesman in a department store. Life is not evenly homogenous in every aspect, and there isn't anything inherently insidious about that. It just is. Heck I wish there was 1 Earth-like planet in every star system we've probed so far -- there isn't -- therefore perhaps we're discriminating against them. :)

rbanffy 16y ago
> maybe this is the natural gender ratio Why nobody complains all mothers are female?
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
There was a very eye opening post on metafilter recently when Blizzard suggested all World of Warcraft players should be forced to use their real name. A woman pointed out this was bad for the women (and girls) who play and listed off a shocking litany of the BS that any obviously female player needed to deal with. Maybe the gender ratio in your game would have been better if this thing was more widely acknowledged and therefore dealt with. edit for link: http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathblood-Blackaxe#3171416 http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathb... The whole thread is eye-opening, regarding female experiences in such arenas.

rbanffy 16y ago

> maybe this is the natural gender ratio Why nobody complains all mothers are female?

ZeroGravitas 16y ago

There was a very eye opening post on metafilter recently when Blizzard suggested all World of Warcraft players should be forced to use their real name. A woman pointed out this was bad for the women (and girls) who play and listed off a shocking litany of the BS that any obviously female player needed to deal with. Maybe the gender ratio in your game would have been better if this thing was more widely acknowledged and therefore dealt with. edit for link: http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathblood-Blackaxe#3171416 http://www.metafilter.com/93492/But-my-name-really-is-Deathb... The whole thread is eye-opening, regarding female experiences in such arenas.