why so few women on ficgs

  

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Normajean Yates    (2008-07-21)
why so few women on ficgs?

compare chess.com.

Simone de Beauvoir write in Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949 that women in l'Etats-Unis d'America are more advanced...

Still true? [with modification: women members of USA-based sites :)]


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-21 15:41:31)
why so few women on ficgs?

Interesting question... Now waiting for nice theories :)


Ulrich Imbeck    (2008-07-21 15:43:40)
They don't need it

They don't need it


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-07-21 16:00:32)
cc sites

Sites like ICCF and IECG seem to be like FICGS - very few women members. Chess.com is not just an exclusive cc site and has a lot more varied chess content - not just cc. Perhaps thats part of the reason. However some sites like chessbase are cringeingly sexist - never missing an opportunity to show pics of the "pretty girls" together with 1950's style comments.


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-21 19:15:38)
thibault you really need more women here

US sites like fics are so sexist [AND racist --- anti-Arab] that for 3 years i was ranting and raving there ...

So chess.com is an exception i think.

I would have liked the first exception to be NOT from the USa, but .. fait accompli it is ... And woman are vocal at chess.com - i've not been the target of any sexist remark [or seen any anti-arab or otherwise racist remark] there so far though i am perhaps the most vocal woman there .. And lots of women DO play corrspondence chess there ... 'lydiablonde' is both vocal and a strong, heavy player.
Anyony I am here for computer-assisted chess and there for the other sort ... [that site doesnt allow engines]


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-21 19:19:02)
clarification on 'vocal'

i am perhaps the most vocal in protests, is what i mean. The very heavy high-quality very popular poster is Sarah Beth (batgirl).

I repeat: that one is for no-engines corr chess; this one is the choice for centaur/advanced/engine-assisted chess. They offer different things..


Ulrich Imbeck    (2008-07-21 22:23:35)
Women don't play so much

Women don't play so much as we do


Don Groves    (2008-07-21 23:32:41)
Women are less competitive

In general, I think women are not as competitive as men and thus are less likely to be found at the tables, so to speak. Women are more cooperative and should, therefore, run the world while men concentrate on less harmful games than war. Women can't do any worse than men have for these thousands of years...


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-07-22 00:23:13)
Women

Also is a question of critical mass, non enough woman playing chess. In my chess club there were only two, and when they came many men stopped what they were doing just to talk with them, so their competition was more like the queen with more satellites around, so they would not play as much chess as men.


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-07-22 00:25:50)
Women

So, if there were more women playing chess, their average strength would be similar to men's


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-22 23:00:04)
critical mass?

see the rate of increase of GMs and IMs who are women [i am not talking of WGMS et al, but GMs who are women!], over the last 50 years. Extrapolate it: in 50 years te questions will be 'why are there so few men in chess?'

Men, as a general rule, will then say: 'we dont play chess because it is trivial'. No point arguing with men in general. Men in general are STUPID and ARROGANT.

Who needs men *qua* men?
A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
I play chess against people who just *happen* to be men.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-22 23:20:29)
Sexist quotes festival part 1 ? :)

My girlfriend particularly likes : "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." ;)

Maybe I can use it for the FICGS quotes file :o)


Michael Aigner    (2008-07-23 10:50:11)
Men in general.... .because -

Menkind in general is STUPID and ARROGANT!


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-23 17:01:48)
Michael Aigner i sometimes agree ..

Oh how i hate the human race
how i hate its ugly face
[there were four more lines ive forgotten - anyone remembers 'em? :)]


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-23 17:03:40)
quote was Gloria Steinem's iirc

"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." - Gloria Steinem iirc


Don Groves    (2008-07-25 04:55:58)
Yes...

... it was Gloria Steinem in the mid-1970s, at the height of the US feminist movement.
My spouse's favorite is "51% sweetheart; 49% bitch -- watch yourself!"


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-07-25 05:01:17)
quote was Gloria Steinem's iirc...

The opposite is also true:

A married woman looks like a fish riding a bicycle.


Thibault de Vassal    (2008-07-25 14:10:48)
Added

Both quotes added :)


Garvin Gray    (2008-07-25 17:41:01)
wonders will never cease

and you guys wonder why there is a lack of females on this site :o :P


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-26 00:44:24)
Rodolfo which side are you on?

Both sides, it seems. Reminds me of Italo Calvino's short story - the name of the english translation was 'solidarity'. I forgot the name of the original italian.


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-26 00:47:05)
on a different but related note:

Anyone remember the song :
C'era Un Ragazzo Che Come Ma Amava i Beatles e i Rolling Stones ...
? :)


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-26 00:49:32)
Don Groves ..

good quote! Also Steinem? Or your spouse;s original?


Don Groves    (2008-07-26 04:54:40)
Quote

Normajean -- I first saw it on a sign on the wall behind our secretary's desk at work. We were always very polite in our requests to her ;-)


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-26 05:25:17)
:) needed:

urgently needed: widespead dissemination of copies of that poster!


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-07-26 10:44:11)
C'era Un Ragazzo ...

I have got that song, it is from Gianni Morandi, it was against the Vietnam war. I have it somewhere, a gift from a friend ...


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-07-26 13:30:44)
Good quotes

"Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist." "If civilization had been left in female hands we would still be living in grass huts." "There is no female Mozart because there is no female Jack the Ripper" - hmmm And finally a self evident truth: "Woman is the dominant sex. Men have to do all sorts of stuff to prove that they are worthy of woman's attention." Obviously all these quotes are from a woman :) How do you like them apples??


Rodolfo d Ettorre    (2008-07-26 14:21:34)
Jill the Ripper

Many people, including the famous historian Johann Sebastian Mastropiero there was not Jack the Ripper, but a female assassin called Jill The Ripper.


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-26 14:27:09)
Rodolfo ... I am playing that song ..

right now on this computer - can you hear it? :)

Andrew, the woman who said all that you cited [Martha Stewart?] is in the ultimate analysis a victim of social programming.


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-07-26 21:42:52)
The lady rocks

Normajean the lady who said that is a feminist lesbian (not martha):) "By midlife and early old age, as the hormones of both genders change, women are in total, despotic control of their marriages." "women's goodwill is crucial for preserving the male ego, which requires, alas, daily maintenance" "It is woman's destiny to rule men. Not to insult them, demean them, or stereotype them as oppressors" "Women are in league with each other, a secret conspiracy of hearts and pheromones"


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-27 16:17:50)
question to Andrew Stephenson

Andrew Stephenson you seem to know a lot about this person that you keep quoting. Perhaps you even happen to know said person's *name*, supposing said person has one? :D


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-07-27 19:03:50)
:)

Surely you can track down who said these quotes Normajean? I will give you a clue she is an american professor: "Today, the ideal male is the gay man,and the ideal female is the worker female, the woman who can work in a coal mine just like all the other men." Such is the brave new world of the politically correct!


Normajean Yates    (2008-07-27 20:20:39)
I WOULD IF I DIDN'T HAVE ,,,

... BETTER THINGS TO DO, THANK YOU!

the lunatic is in ... whose head?


Andrew Stephenson    (2008-07-27 22:35:25)
Like chess

Yes of course like posting something connected with chess! You are right:)