One of the first things I noticed when I joined my local amateur astronomy group a few years ago was the preponderance of males. Not long ago, the local university had a Father and Son Night in astronomy. And, you guessed it, no Mother and Daughter Night. When I joined IIS not long ago, it struck me that there were few women in the forums. I may be wrong, but my bet is that males way out number the females in IIS as well. I can’t remember whether there was a Male/Female box you had to tick when filling out personal details so I don’t know wether Mike can give us any idea of the ratio.
Does anyone have a different feeling about the stats?
Are there any male/female couples out there that regularly do astronomical viewing together?
Assuming my feelings about the stats are right, my question in this International Year of Astronomy is “Why so few girls?” Why have we, as a society, not attracted more woman into this field of endeavour?
Are guys more “hard-wired” to astronomy or is it a case of “pink or blue, dolls or trucks” from an early age?
Female viewpoint welcome!
Curious, Rob
