Reasons for Absence of Women Gurus in CR4

It's possible that there are some women around. It's also possible that women just have more fun things to do.

Those of us that love it here may be a little quirky too. I've tried to get male friends of mine on here, (engineers), and they think it's a bore.

"Woman is a miracle of divine contradictions" Jules Michelet

There are more declared women here than westerners realize, as was pointed out in a previous thread by one of our Indian friends - we don't recognize the female names.

I also agree this place is not for everyone - and a woman who is 'quirky' enough to enjoy the content and companionship at CR4 probably wouldn't benefit by announcing she is female.

It's true we have some women here - English Rose and Sue come to mind - who are accepted and aren't subjected to any prejudicial treatment afaict. (Other than threads like this - "absence of women gurus" pretty much ignores them, doesn't it? ...) In fact, every time we have a thread discussing the "absence of women" there are guys who make prejudicial remarks, pretty well answering the question - why would a woman who actually likes this place, be better off gender anonymous.

We seem to assume that women in engineering or the trades who might come to CR4 are not carrying a history of being treated with prejudice. I think that is a mistake. If women are more comfortable being gender-anonymous here to avoid the attitude, well that's alright. Hope there are lots of em! Enjoy yourselves, gals!!

Everybody knows the kind of toys boys prefer.Its all moving parts of toy cranes,car,bus rather than barbie doll.

PMSL.

Never had a barbie (never wanted one). Aged 5, I picked out a wood working set as a present for myself. I have a clockwork railway and a Matchbox motorway set. I would set them up together and build bridges from bricks and sticklebricks.

Aged about 8, I was identified as "special needs" (the bright end) and when given boxes etc to build something, built a classic JCB digger. Funny thing was, I didn't intend to build one. I just played with the egg boxes and stuff and that's what it turned into....I seem to remember the teacher looking slightly concerned.

She also taught us ship navigation and how to take bearings and back bearings.

The family spent summer weekends at Classic bus rallies. I helped Dad fix the car (when Mum would let me!)

Quite frankly, I never stood a chance! Qualified Mechie, working in the Heavy Duty sector...with full HGV licence!

Now. Who wanted to discuss women in engineering and gurus on CR4???!

How do we know? Many of the usernames are made up and could be either sex. Reasonable assumption though.

I know for a fact that there are female moderators, so I try to keep the potty mouth in check...........................I'm usually successful.

Why would someone who already knows everything want to come here and play?

^{Now that'll get the ladies out in force.}

It the philanthropic amongst us that come out to teach....

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Female geeks?? It's almost an oxymoron,,,or perhaps it is....Sorta like albino roaches,,,I've heard they exist,,,but I've never actually seen one....Oh yes there are female engineers and scientists and other geeky fields that women work in,,,but they don't seem to actually revel in it, the way men sometimes do...This is most certainly a product of society, where women are taught from birth that they must be attractive to men, and there's nothing less attractive than a know-it-all woman...On the other hand men, who are knowledgeable, are likely to be good providers...These type of stereotypical misnomers are changing, but as we all know, change, in society, is slow...Having said all that, I would like to close with a little reminder,,,,not all women on line are women, and not all men are men...

Perhaps when you have been here a bit longer, you might become aware of who is what gender. And by then, you may realize gender is irrelevant when it comes to knowledge and expertise.

"they said its no fun" could be a way of saying they find much of CR4 too stupid to be bothered with.

Or they see remarks like "that they don't have enough practical experience/ knowledge to share their thoughts/ideas" as an ingrained male attitude.

what he said.

Two other gurus: Jaxy and Savvy Exacta.

and English Rose.

As a number of others have said, it depends on which bits of CR4 people (male or female) see. There's a lot of rubbish gets posted. There are a lot of facinating and informative threads. Finding what you want means searching...

There are a bunch of groupings (cliques is a bit strong) and a stack of in-jokes. Women are less into breaking into these things than men IME.

Forums and threads are funny things. Ones you think will get lots of attention don't, or wander off the point. Others that sound trivial, like "how to break a cast iron bath", take on a life technique all of their own...

When I joined CR4 (3 web incarnations ago after about 3 years of the GlobalSpec newsletter), I wanted to make two things clear: my nationality and my gender. It's worked to my satisfaction and I have rarely had gender-specific insults here and those have been dealt with swiftly.

Who cares whether you've got dangly bits or bumps in the blouse...share what you know, ask about what you don't. That's what CR4 is all about.

Oh. And pretending you're a furry animal, a flower or eat vast amounts of carrots. Or live in a warren.

Too bad this news item came up a few days after the thread:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/11/21/ncbi-rofl-the-mere-anticipation-of-an-interaction-with-a-woman-can-impair-mens-cognitive-performance/

We don't want anyone's cogs impaired here. Henceforth, when answering questions, please pretend that all "female" avatars, including moderators and OP's are males.

I can adapt the HUMS (Helicopter Usage Monitoring System) for ground-based, human cog continuous monitoring duty...just to put everyone's mind at rest.

I know I'm looking like a creep. but that is a GA. Slacky will back me up.

Guess it's better late than never, just wished I seen this thread while is was active and not 4 years later. I am a male and it does irks the crap out of me to see a question or a statement addressed to males only. There are and still are some very knowledgeable women on this forum. There was one time when a "new comer" introduced himself(?) and proceeded to pose a question towards the male gender. I politely welcome him to CR4, a place where even a woman could give you the best answer to your question! Ideal Smith might remember it? Just I find it so condescending to limit oneself when he's the one here asking the question, hoping 'someone' might have an answer for him.

Here in the States women left the kitchen back during WWII and don't think any of them have looked back! Go forward and don't look back, it's not worth it, no matter what country you or they are from.

Has it really been 4 years?

It only matters if put in a perspective. A mayfly might think that an aweful long time, but it's just the blink of an eye for a Croc.

Four and a half if you're a pedant.........if you believe IHS's date system

JD is rather good at noticing stats, so I think you may find 4 1/2 to be incorrect if we seek exactitude . That said, the margin of error is insignificant compared to a certain shop I know*.

* For anybody puzzzled, 2m = 6 1/2" (according to some bloke in a local shop). Don't ask any more detail - IHS havn't enough server capacity for the ranting reply that would happen ! 'Brickdust on foerhead is the usual Brit expression.