Why all or most audiophiles are men?

Hi Pindac - thanks for a good description. For some of us. But what about a more 'economical' explanation? Women are absent in audiophile circles not because they perform worse than the men but because they are downvalued by the men.

@pindac,

I agree with most of what you're saying, and I think a summary would be that women generally like music and don't care about gear, which is why few of them are audiophiles.

"Women are absent in audiophile circles not because they perform worse than the men but because they are downvalued by the men."

@o_holter 

I think that's nonsense. Women do and go wherever they want, and if they wanted to be here they would, just like they crashed the Boy Scouts. 

@roxy54 - "nonsense"? I don’t think so. Look at the treatment of artists like Joni Mitchell. It is not so long ago that there was a division between "artists" - and then, a step below - "female artists". After having written almost exclusively about men for many years, Stereophile finally had an article on women in audio. Male preference and homosociality has a long tradition in the "buddy culture" of audiophilia.

Yet I do not think that most men, for example on Audiogon, want to discriminate against women. They don't want to, but they do it a bit, nevertheless. They often keep on to very traditional "nature decides" explanations that won’t create change. Men are often not aware of their own bias.