Lack of Female Representation

Wow some of the answers in this post were shocking. I am a female audiophile and started my love at an early age. I was the one in a family with three brothers who had the record player and bought the records in the late 60's. I was one of several women in our local camera club. Worked at Tech Hifi with another woman audiophile. I heard many male clients use the wife excuse. Later when I met their wives the main reason they were not audiophiles were they didn't have control of the household money. They had no control over discretionary spending. There household budget went to raising kids. The man cave was off limits. My love for live performances was the main driver in trying to capture that sound at home. I didn't want the biggest speaker so I could out due my other audiophiles. I wanted the best sound. I was not interested in constantly chasing the next new cable, amp or tonearm. I carefully crafted the sound I wanted in my system. Once I was happy with my system I was not interested in hanging out with a group of people who tested cables for the fun of it. I like passively reading reviews and keeping up with the technology I just didn't want to spend my free time listening to a group of men talking cables, making sexist jokes and talking around me and not to me. Some things have changed over the years. Happy to see the SF audiophile group President is a woman. Not all the men treat us less than equal. But reading these comments that I hoped were trying to be funny with the my wife jokes I realized maybe times have not changed. 

@ghasley Just to let you know that I never thought for a moment that you were being disrespectful. Honestly, I do not think women in forums (this is the only forum I am in besides Roon) are that sensitive at all. It takes a much bigger push. 
And I should mention that most of the guys have been helpful beyond my expectations when I was buying equipment.

I’ve been spending a disproportionate amount of my income on audio hi-fi equipment for about 25 years and I can only speak from my own observations. All of the women I’ve ever known, dated or friends, thought I was crazy to spend that much to listen to music, and all in their own homes were content with smallish Best-Buy type “systems,” if they even had those. No opinions, just my observations. 

Of course there are lots of women audiophiles!  I run into them all the time at flea markets and music stores.  I spoke with my nieces, both audiophiles, and they spend their time listening to music (and living life).  They don’t particularly care to be mansplained to about things so they avoid forums populated by middle-aged white guys.  

Well if anonymity is such a concern, perhaps we should all use our actual names. 

Did you ever consider that some of the of the problems experienced by these female enthusiasts were issues with perception and not reality? To assume that these members speak for all women and that their shared experiences are universal is very dangerous. The kinder and gentler among use readily accept this as fact because it fits very neatly into the narrative and world view.

If you really want issues of race and gender to disappear, then quit calling attention to it and expect no special accommodation when you start to participate in a staid hobby like audio. The best way to affect change is to get over the feelings of discomfort and show these old farts that you have something to offer. Yes I did suggest that some of us step out of our comfort zones for just a moment. Some things in life arent easy as much as current trends would like to suggest that they should be.

jjss49 I love the way you equate social and political opinions with notions of worth.