Where are the female Audiophiles?

Pzuckerman, the notion that only male birds sing is incorrect, The comparison to humans is very thin, as humans do not speak almost exclusively for mating purposes. (Not trying to be argumentative, just factual)However, your analysis of women is quite astute.

Regarding the topic at hand:

Women tend to be social and look for social activities. Listening silently to gear is not terribly social. Women tend to enjoy relationships, not objects. Many women do not care to converse on or develop expertise on technical machinery. Many women hold down two jobs, if they work outside the home and most are still the primary caregivers, so audio is not a high priorety. etc.

Steve Chamber's wife is perfectly representative, in that she calls our stuff "Lego" and indicates that the setting is more important than the gear. Women tend to cherish events in life (note social context), not sterile performance of components.

To that end, an audiophile would likely do better at involving the wife in the hobby if he takes her to a concert occasionally and puts on the artist's music afterward. Then, MAYBE she'll take SLIGHT notice of the equipment/presentation.

BTW, some men probably feel lied to or betrayed by women who at first, prior to marriage, sit and listen along with them, then after marriage do not. It's not that the women were being deceitful; they just wanted to spend time with their man. But, men don't realize that, and they think the woman is really into the audio, etc. Wrong. She just wanted to be with him.

Men do the same thing by "romancing" a woman as a means to win her, then stopping after he's won her. Men look at it like a job to do, and once done, no more need to work at it, right? wrong.

Go, buy her some flowers, buy some tickets to a concert, etc. There's your free mariage counseling advice. After all, your marriage IS more important than your rig, right?

Why do more women use iPods than stereos? Because they're cute. Seriously, Apple knows what it's doing; many women like "cute" electronics - small, not as intimidating, etc.
Many of them will pick phones like a pair of sunglasses, how they look.

Interesting observation that Crystal Cable has a woman heading up the company and she knows what she's doing in regards to advertising. (This is not a slam at all, as I haven't worked with Crystal Cables - just an observation) Look at the ads; completely aesthetically driven. Mostly pictures and "feel", not technical blurbs. It's working on the aesthetic, not the intellectual. It's tapping into the fact that many people today, men and women, operate not on congition but with emotion.

For most women, sitting in an isolated environment with complex machinery is not terribly compelling as an activity.

Mrtennis, you write:
what is the evidence and/or basis of all the geneder-specific analysis of "female" behavior ?

C'mon, tell me you're joking. You really can't see something this obvious? It's not JUST socialization, it's both genetic and socialization - the same way that people who try to keep their kids from guns are stunned when the kid picks up a stick, aims it and yells, "POW! POW!"

I have concluded that it's not that men cannot see these differences, but that many of them choose to ignore or discount them. The men sit smug in their isolated music, and the women, who don't realize how important such things are to men, are smug in their perception of it as childish. Thus it goes at many audiophile's homes. Why else would men lie to their wives about equipment purchased, etc. There's a lot of abnormal, unhealthy relationships because men don't understand (or respect) women very well, and because women discount men's needs. It does go both ways, but the topic of the thread was why women aren't as into audio.

Futher, I would suggest that women would likely advance faster as audiophiles, because they connect mentally with both the intellectual and aesthetic more wholistically. Frankly, I think many women have already assessed the sound of their partner's systems and judged it "nice" but boring. They can hear the differences, but to them those differences are not significant enough to spend tons of time assessing those differences. In their scheme of what's important in life, overdoses of music rates low.

This shouldn't be rocket science to men! It should be obvious, but as I said, many guys look at women with a slight degree of arrogance and superiorety. They'll actually harbor a low level contempt for the woman because she "Doesn't get it" etc. No, they get it, they just don't care as passionately as we do. Many guys just can't accept that possibility. Women know when men do this (the arrogance and superiorety attitude), and they despise it. Causes untold friction between them. etc.

They guys who say their wives are fine with the audio - they are most likely the ones who respect their wives desires and attitudes more. In return, they get more respect toward the audio hobby.

Mrtennis, something tells me you don't want to believe such differences could exist. By the way OF COURSE men's and women's brains will be mostly identical! However, the differences are critical! If you can't see that, I'm not going to spend an hour culling info on it. Do some homework! I'm not about to come with all sorts of data only to have you with a negative, argumentative attitude and discount it. Maybe you'll see if you research it yourself. If it's not important enough to you, so be it. No skin of our backs...

Call me "sexist" having stereotypical impressions of women, or whatever you like, but if you reject what I've said, then you're going to have a bit of difficulty getting along with the opposite sex.

What a naive idea, "If women were treated as equals..." You obviously don't understand: A man can treat a woman as equal as anyone can, yet women typically AREN'T INTERESTED IN machines and solitary activites like some men. Maybe sexist thinking on the part of women is behind men not wanting to belong to book clubs or not watching QVC for an hour a day as well?

MrT, you're a good guy around here; I mean no ill feelings, no disrespect. I agree that more accommodation to introduce them to audio and educating them would be highly valuable. But, I think that we've got a trend that spans decades going here, and it's not about to change now.

The one exception I see is Stock Car Racing: Hunky drivers, music, etc. tied in with a HIGHLY SOCIAL setting has turned on women to the sport. In most audiophile's lives there's not much social about the hobby. Hah, in some audiophile rooms there's only ONE listening chair. I wonder what THAT says about inviting others to the party? Yes, my room has several chairs, and every time my wife spends time listening without fail I offer her the optimum chair. Most of the time she doesn't want to sit there, as it's higher back bothers her neck. I guess she's not a good audiophile. :)

I'm leaving this topic (at least for now); I'm not devoting more time to this discussion.