In the words of the High Priest at the stoning in The Life of Brian, “are there any women here ?” It does seem odd that ‘fiddling with your stereo’ seems a hugely male pastime. I know many women that enjoy music in all its forms, indeed, I have a concert partner that shares my enjoyment of live music, but they don’t seem to spend time on forums talking about it. There seems to be more female involvement in my model rail hobby and tabletop gaming has a fair distribution of ladies. Am I just not seeing them in here?
Going by username is, as it should be, no way to know. As I don’t check members’ gender*, can’t answer…but the women members I do know of are certainly brainier than me in terms hifi knowledge.
*Do we list gender? Can’t remember. I know we do birthdays as an option.
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Don’t encourage them. If they start coming on here they will see how much their husbands are spending on HiFi and rein them in. Naim will go bust overnight. 
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Male of female… frankly doesn’t matter a jot both welcome and I don’t need to know any members gender. There isn’t an audiophile angle as far as I’m concerned. Yes I suspect hifi is a heavily male dominated subject/ hobby, but the women on this forum that I know of are keen and knowledgeable members.
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There are certainly some - and as has been observed, username or avatar may give no clue, or false clue. I do not assume any fellow member is a man unless some indication of that as gender is given - and in hifi, as in life other than usually in personal sexual relations, it doesn’t matter whether people are male, female, or other.
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I thought for a minute this was an interconnect question!
I don’t think you can assume anything about contributors’ gender or anything else unless they specifically provide such information.
The known ladies here generally have extremely valuable opinions on all matters hi-fi.
Personally I think those who contribute just have different priorities on what to spend their money on than people who don’t (unless they have unlimited funds).
The internet has allowed fantastic discussion/debate of things we’d never have considered or even known about a short few decades ago.
Do contributors simply have higher standards? Are they perfecionists? Do they try to compensate for things which aren’t perfect in life by spending money?
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Yes, your obsevations are 100% correct. I have three daughters and have always been an enthusiastic supporter of the fairer sex. But in answer to your question, and from my own experience on this, and other, audio forums, I would guesstimate that the general audio membership is 95% male.
Why? Who knows … ?
My wife loves our system and the music it provides.
But when you really read the stuff, technical and otherwise, that we all (me included) go on about; can you blame them for choosing a different hobby, even though they have a bit of interest in this one?
Most of the more knowledgeable audiophiles here, are I’m guessing experienced professionals coming from some computer electrical system designing. Mechanical engineering and other technical disciplines that’s perhaps on the same wavelength.
Looking at today’s universities and apprenticeships, they seem to be actively looking for more female involvement with industry.
Perhaps in a decade or so when they start retiring there could be a boom.
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My wife simply doesn’t care, although you could say that about 99% of men as well.
I once spent a morning with my local dealer comparing a couple of boxes. It took us the better part of an hour to figure out what was different about them. We came up with several strengths and weaknesses. SWMBO came in from her errands and said that she was ready to go do something else. We talked her into listening to the comparison. She said, “This does this, this and this, and that one does that, that and that. Can we go?” She had nailed everything we’d spent an hour on in five minutes of listening.
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Just take youself to ANY audio show and look at the high percentage of middle-aged (plus) males sitting around you. I put this down to an income which can support a potentialy expensive hobby although quality motor cars come into this catagory as well.
A few people and there are not many of them can apperciate quality audio but have no interest in taking it further. Perhaps they don’t know what they are missing?
That may explain the age category, but not the predominance of men. Is it perhaps that men are rather more sad cases, letting their hobby dominate them, whereas, just perhaps, women who may be just as enthusiastic might spend less time dreaming and more time doing - i.e. sitting at home listening to music instead of going to hifi shows.
In quite a few conversations with Derek Jenkins, sadly no longer with us, he had the time to talk all things audio whilst fettling my LP12. A TT easier to set up these days than it used to be but still needing a lot of know how to get the best out of it.
I asked him if be thought a lot of hi-fi enthusiasts had a good bit of OCD. “Yes, most of them!” was his reply. A friend with an LP12 says and I quote “if your hi-fi isn’t right then your not right”.
Sad perhaps.
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You’re just not looking hard enough!
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