[MadMathMind]

Maybe it's just my past experience with forums in general, but I always assumed this site was like like 98% male. Then again, my wife frequents some BBS (seemingly related to absolutely nothing in particular) that is crawling with women. I tend to think that women can find better things to do than argue on the internet...but then again, my wife's BBSmates are fervant posters. She'll post something seemingly random and get 22+ pages of replies and 1000+ views on the thread.

In any case, even 15% is a pleasant surprise, although it would be nice if it were higher.I assume that the percentage of DSLR users among women is much higher than that number, just that not nearly as many post on forums like this one.


---------- Post added 01-02-15 at 07:23 PM ----------

What shall we poll next? Personally I'd like to see "Preference: Boxers, Briefs, or Itty Bitty String Things".

You are certainly free to start it!

[JibbaJab]

Maybe it's just my past experience with forums in general, but I always assumed this site was like like 98% male. Then again, my wife frequents some BBS (seemingly related to absolutely nothing in particular) that is crawling with women. I tend to think that women can find better things to do than argue on the internet...but then again, my wife's BBSmates are fervant posters. She'll post something seemingly random and get 22+ pages of replies and 1000+ views on the thread.

I tend to think women argue on the internet about many things other than photography gear and terminology.

Seriously though, I get why PF has so few women. I'm part of a subscription-only, all-women photography forum. When I need encouragement, support, or constructive criticism on the technical and aesthetic aspects of an image, I go there. When I want to get smacked in the face with cold hard opinions or have a laugh, I come here. I'm used to the latter because I get it all the time at my mostly-male jobsite (with surprisingly more sexual harassment than here on the web) so I guess I can take it a little better...at times.

[rrstuff]

Nice try NSA!

[Trudger1272]

I'm definitely not a woman, but at school I'm not only the only Pentaxian, I'm the only African-American in the department. At the other campus there's one woman shooting Pentax. I got her hooked before transferring. Careful it's contagious!

[Sandy Hancock]

It frequently amuses me when forum people assume I am a woman.
Sorry to disappoint.

[Omestes]

And it skews male, surprising no one (or at least me).

Why am I not surprised? First, because it is the internet, and while things have been getting better in the last decade, it still seems to skew male a bit (for whatever reason). Second, camera's are a techie hobby, and for some reason this also skews mostly male. Hopefully the latter is getting better as well.

Also, for some of the women I know, they avoid general forums because of previous experiences with men being disgusting, and thus generally pick different venues (like Facebook, smaller communities, or places more frequented by women). As a person who used to frequent gaming forums, I can definitely see the reasons for this.

A bit sad though, more people, more diversity, different life experiences and outlooks = we all win.

I've tried for years to get my girlfriend into the more technical aspects of photography, to no avail. The closest she'll get is toying with my Olympus EP3 on auto while I'm forcing her to lug it around for me. Which is probably for the best, our house can probably only accommodate one deranged photo nerd.

[kodai84]

Most of the DSLR users I know are by far women, though I'm male and am the only Pentax user I know around here (but hey, I also run Linux on my computer too). Seems like it's a/b 3/2 Canon/Nikon with DSLRS and a/b 60/40 DSLRs/phones,mirrorless, etc.

[csa]

"I'm part of a subscription-only, all-women photography forum. When I need encouragement, support, or constructive criticism on the technical and aesthetic aspects of an image, I go there. When I want to get smacked in the face with cold hard opinions or have a laugh, I come here."

I'm fairly new to this site; however I've found nothing but encouragement, support, and constructive criticism on any images I've posted, & have been made to feel very welcome here! I've yet to get "smacked in the face with cold hard opinions", maybe I'd better duck!

I was a moderator for several years on an astronomy website with a very large membership; and again, I found even though there were relatively few women members, they were accepted as "one of the guys", and were respected by the male membership, and were given encouragement & support.

Carol

[severalsnakes]

I'm fairly new to this site; however I've found nothing but encouragement, support, and constructive criticism on any images I've posted, & have been made to feel very welcome here! I've yet to get "smacked in the face with cold hard opinions", maybe I'd better duck!

I agree with you completely, there, Carol. Everyone here has been super cool, and I tend to be pretty tuned in and alert to unfair treatment. People who have an interest typically just wanna come to a forum like this to talk about it, doesn't particularly matter with who. Trolls that pick on individuals or make inappropriate comments are soundly moderated, in my experience here at Pentax Forums.

Opinions are good. Differences are good. This place is fun. :-)

[csa]

+1, this is a great site, that I am enjoying immensely; not to mention, learning more about photography!