Why all or most audiophiles are men?

How do we "know" that biology decides? Fifty years ago this was believed also in the case of "race" and music. What about social conditioning? We live in a very strongly gender-divided society, not least in the US. Perhaps time to wake up from the illusion that this is simply nature's work? 

My Wife, Daughter and their female friends all Listen to much more music than I do using electronic equipment.

Females I know as associates through Work, also listen to much more music than I do, all using electronic equipment.

If a Audiophile is some body who enjoys music, especially music reproduced using electronic devices, then the female is surpassing the male in this area.

Where the Female is seen to differ to a Male attitude to being an audiophile, is their selection of electronic equipment is very portable, and they take part in their interest at numerous opportunities.

Do keep in mind terms such as Hi Fidelity and Audiophile are only about 70 years Old and were born from cleverly selected Marketing Spiel, such terms today are corrupted to mean what ever get attached to them.

In todays terminology, even somebody a 160 years past using Edison’s or De Martinvilles devices for reproducing Phono ( Voice, Sound) could have worn the Label Audiophile.

Have a look at live music events and tell me the observations are showing a Male being the larger proportion of attendees, these events are such successes as a result of Female Spending Power.

The Streaming Services really know how to attract the Female Population, their spending power has made streaming platforms revenues that are unimaginable.

Audio Equipment sold to those who lock themselves away in a room types, will not get much attention from a Female, as that as means of living for a hobby will be viewed a miserable experience.

The Female is very astute, better off keeping funds for having a few weekends away at Multi Day Music Festivals, enjoying numerous live performances listened to through Electronic Equipment, ( another abstract of being an audiophile).

The same as for Audiophile and being Female, extends to Photography in very similar measure, the Females are taking more images today than men.

There is a estimation that during the entirety of Film Photography, more images are taken Digital in the past Two Years, than the entirety of Film Photos taken historically. How about adding the Gross of all Digital Images taken and then compare the end figure to the Gross of Film.  

Very few Females waste time trying to eke the betterment as a result of Post Editing, no Digital Dark Rooms, unless it an onboard one button filter option, way too many Photo Opportunities to get out and capture, instead of playing on Computer Screen. Men on the other hand, are the fuel to such marketing.

At a Sony Photo Exhibition I attended recently, I would state that 50% or more visitors were female on my day if attendance, and some heard in conversation really nailed the interpretation of certain images.

Those with an interest in music and are not seeing the Females presence, really are locked away in their rooms with the Curtains Drawn. Happy Hi Fidelity and Audiophilia.

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.