Where Are The Ladies?

No problems here as my wife is a coin collector and a very wise one at that!

When you walk a coin show, I would bet that 90% of the people you see on the floor are men. I guess it is the nature of the hobby.

Some hobbies gravitate more toward men and others (i.e. Garden Clubs) lean toward woman.

I remember showing some of my coin treasures to my female friends and the first thing they were interested in was how much are they worth and how easy is it to sell coins.

One of the reasons why they are not my girl friends anymore.

I just invited two of our six grandkids to help search through pennies and nickels, and put them in folders.

The little girl said "No thanks."

The little boy said "Okay."

The trend continues.

My two daughters though still too young, are facinated with my coins.

My lady friend seems to be a little interested in it. She does not mind going to the shows with me, but refuses to go to anymore auctions. She was at one for about 20 minutes, and she said she would pick me back up when it was over. I try to get her involved... she enjoys looking through large piles for certain things. She loves it when she finds something that I am looking for or a better date.

One thing that she does not really care for is when I get another Morgan for my Dansco's. To her, they are all the same. She really enjoys the type set that I put together however.

So I try not to bore her with the same things, get a variety in there.

Hopefully I'll get her to go to some of the shows and sweet talk some of the... elderly men for some good deals

I'm here, but I often feel rather alone in the hobby - I don't encounter many other women when dealing with coins. I am glad to see that there are a few others here.

I've thought about this a bit, and I have posted in other threads on the subject, but it isn't necessarily easy to figure out why this hobby is so male-dominated. The best I have been able to come up with is that it appeals to personality types that tend to be male, albeit not exclusively so. I do approach it differently from the way other collectors see it. I don't really get anything out of the "thrill of the hunt" or the buying, selling, and financial aspects of it; if coin collecting consisted entirely of these characteristics, it would not interest me in the least. What really keeps me going is the connections that the coins imply. They connect to other cultures, past times, artistic styles, philosophy (especially axiological concepts), and events in my own life. Other items do this for me as well, and they are just as important to me - in some cases even more so. I would give up all of my coins before I would willingly give up even a few of my books. My reasons for enjoying this hobby may not be typical of either men or women (or maybe they are; I can't claim to know for certain what drives other people), but they illustrate a variety of ways to appreciate coins. Perhaps talking about these connections would bring in people who aren't otherwise interested.

Heather

It's certainly the case that, as far as organised numismatics is concerned, males greatly outnumber females in the United States and here in Australia. By "organised", I mean joining coin clubs, mailing lists or Internet forums like this one.

Why would this be so? It could be the "organisation" thing; there may be an awful lot of women happy to just informally collect, without feeling the need to share or contribute. And certainly there can be a "vicious cycle" to having not many active women in the hobby; new women potentially interested could see the hobby as a "guy thing" and find another interest.

Apparently, it's not a universal problem. My understanding is that in Britain and New Zealand (and forum members from these countries are welcome to either confirm or correct this), the situation is much closer to gender parity.