It does seem as though disproportionately few women play quiz-bowl. Meanwhile, just as a(nother) data point from earlier this week, one particular game show tryout group included exactly four women, or somewhere in the 5-7% range. Why do people think this is? Do people think it's a problem? (My answers: I don't know; and yes.) I don't think singling out the best female players is the way to solve the problem, in fact it might be counterproductive, but at least someone's heart seems to be in the right place. I suppose the people who'd play any given trivia game will be both interested in trivia, and audacious enough to play. (It's like posting to this group. A whole lot people read these messages but think to themselves, "I would never actually post something here." Maybe that's unfortunate, since a lot of those people would greatly improve the signal-to-noise.) You've probably met or talked to people who really enjoy trivia but when it comes to actually playing on a team or trying out for a game show, they'll say "I could never do that." Most of the people who I've heard say that are female. In any case, the game show contestant search group seemed almost exactly like a 10-to-20-years-older version of the set of people whom you'd meet at a quiz tournament. Given just how antisocial some quiz- bowl players can be, I can see where this wouldn't seem like a group of people whom "outsiders" would be eager to join.
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