Ok - I know I am probably opening up a can of worms here, but are there are any statistics relating to the number of men/women in the hobby? Reason I asked in that I watched a portion of a Dream, Plan, Build video the other day and there was a line that went something like ‘making a man feel like a boy and a boy feel like a man.’ So I looked at a couple other videos and there wasn’t a single featured layout built by a woman. So , I found the names of the NMRA Board of DIrectors and, at least by name, I didn’t see any females. Also, I rarely see any women scouring the shelves of the LHS’s I frequent and it seems that most people who post here are men.
I know in years past I have read articles on how we socialize our kids by the way we dress them, the toys they receive, the sports they play - and I wonder if we socialize them through the hobby.
Not that I think this is bad thing, but it did get me to wondering about the numbers and perhaps why we don’t see more females involved in hobby - if that is a true statement. Any thoughts?
There have been a number of women active on this forum, but I have not heard from them in a while. [}] Quite a few wives partner with their husbands on their layouts.
There are a couple of girls in the local Youth in Model Railroading group. Some of their modules are among the best the group has at their shows. So, there’s some hope for the future.
I rode the Downeast Scenic Railway in Ellsworth, Maine a couple of weeks back. I was surprised and again encouraged by the number of women involved in this all-volunteer operation.
Harold,As far as I know it was at one time now we have accomplish women model railroaders.
As a side note…I recall the first woman to join the club I was a member of years ago…We had to change our act by not passing bad air and then joking about it,cleaning up our language and knocking on the bathroom door before entering…Needless to say a lot of us was unhappy but,we soon changed our tune when we saw her modeling and the knowledge she had and not to mention those tasty home made cookies she would bring…
I see a lot of ladies at different train shows looking through boxes under the tables, having discussions with vendors etc. All of which leads me to believe there are a lot more ladies involved in this hobby than partcipation in these on-line forums would suggest. Just a couple of years ago, an older lady who lived by herself a couple of doors from me passed away. She had a very large O gauge layout in her attic. Who would have thought it…
Harold, I would have to say that the number of women in the hobby of their own volition and not simply as a way of supporting, or forming a closer bond with, their husbands and boyfriends, has to be and always has been, vanishingly small.
Make no mistake; there are some women in the hobby. I’ve even seen a few female TV personalities claim to be hobbyists, but then you know how the Hollywood-types regard themselves as being in a hobby. I do know of one female hobbyist who even holds an NMRA Master Model Railroader certificate. But such are rare exceptions.
Based on my library of 70 years of MRs, I can say that I’ve not seen examples of layouts built independently by women hobbyists on more than perhaps 5 occasions. Considering the number of layout articles that have appeared over that long interval, the suggestion would be that women probably represent no more than about 0.1 to 0.5 of a percent of all model railroaders at any given time in the hobby’s history.
Traditionally, model railroading has been considered a males-only hobby, this perception being particularly strongly re-enforced in the public’s mind throughout the 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s through Lionel’s literature. Thus, even for women today who might harbor an interest in the hobby, unless it is perhaps practiced in conjunction with a spouse there might be an unfavorable implication associated in its practice by them. God knows, enough guys get ribbed by their friends for pursuing the hobby instead of spending weekends absolutely glued to the TV watching sports!
I think most that are active are so as a husband-wife team, in the small scales I have meet no “single women” hobbiest in my adult life and only read about a couple who have actual layouts. I have read posts from mothers who were building HO or O layouts for their kids, but thats much more for the kids layout than themselves.
Now in Large Scale garden RRing, I have run into much more women hobbiest, again most were husband-wife teams, but a few were doing it for themselves. I suspect its more that there is gardening part of it and the trains are part of the garden design. But in LS again, most ladies I have met were either husband-wife partners or older retired ladies.
How many of us men do you see hanging out getting our nails and makeup done, or at the mall shopping for cloths. You know what I mean, women have their own intersts and we have ours.
I do however, see some women at my LHS, but they are usually with their husbands.
I think it would be safe to say that MRRing is “mostly” a male hobby. Where the actual percentages lie, I have no idea. However, I would dare to guess that 8 in 10 a probably men.
When I was employed by a major toy store some years ago, I couldn’t help but notice two things:
There was a sharp and obvious break between ‘boy toys’ and ‘girl toys.’ The boys’ aisles were full of action heroes, construction machinery, RC cars and the small selection of train sets. Girls had frilly pink ‘girlie’ stuff, domestic machinery and a gazillion iterations of Barbie.
Girls who accidently wandered into the ‘boy’ stuff were usually diverted by their parents, sometimes almost forceably. If a boy wandered in among the Barbies he would usually be left alone - but most retreated of their own volition.
If the stick is bent that hard that early, is it any surprise that women tend to grow away from interest in a hobby that glorifies the dirty, sweaty, hands in the machinery, ‘thing’ oriented railroads? Of course, it doesn’t always work that way. One of my granddaughters was into - fire trucks! (Can’t tell yet which way her two boys will go. One’s a toddler, the other is still growing baby teeth. Daddy is a Sergeant.)
Apropos CNJ’s first comment, adult model railroaders of either sex tend to be married, or at least paired off. So, saying that women model rails seem to be mainly supporting their husbands’ hobbies leaves one key question. Who is the leader, and who’s the follower? My own wife (girlfriend at the time) bent my model railroading twig just over half a century ago, with the gift of my first Japanese prototype rolling stock. That little six-coupled tank engine is still going strong - and so’s the relationship. (Her suggestion that we visit the Kiso country in 1964 was the birth of my current Master Plan…)
There’s only one woman (that I’m aware of) in the model railroad club I belong to, but one of the guys brings in his girlfriend on occasion, and she seems to enjoy it. I’ve wondered about this same thing, though, because I thought it was kind of a shame there weren’t more women involved with the club.
I think that women tend to be more social about their interests, often desiring company or someone with whom to actively compare and share ideas and experiences. We men do some of that right here, but really, we are mostly lone wolfs, probably a lot of alpha types, not used to playing second fiddle…or not liking it, at least. Sure, many hobbyists enjoy their time at clubs, but most of their hobby time (thinking, dreaming, reading, building, and playing) is done alone.
It doesn’t surprise me that so few women are in the hobby, and that when they are, it is usually as a partner with someone else. As far as skills and abilities, men lost that argument years ago…women can do pretty much anything they set their minds to…except maybe convincing a man that he is wrong or that he should ask someone else for directions. [(-D]
I agree that there are very few women hobbyists independent of husband, boy friend, etc.
For good or bad, model building, woodworking, metal working, etc. seem to be male hobbies while sewing, knitting, scrap booking, etc. are female hobbies.
Of course with model railroading you not only have model building, you have woodworking and electrical - metal working too, if you build your own turnouts.
My wife once expressed an interest in building the Iowa Schoolhouse by Campbell. I promptly bought the kit for her. 35 years later it’s still a kit.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the era when young women were beginning to break out of stereotypical roles in society, (50s - 70s) the railroad was disappearing from public awareness. And even as late as the 70s, the industry itself was a “boys club”. Children who thought they could actually join that club (boys) gravitated more towards a fascination with trains than those who felt they could not join. This just carried over into hobbies of men who wanted to be railroaders as boys. Many more young women today become interested in the same thing boys do, but as we all know, neither gender of kids is interested in trains to a great degree, except for the fact that they bring them their iPods.
That said, the last president of our club was a woman, and a pretty good modeler.
Also, I have a great many female friends who don’t really have hobbies, as we define model railroading, though many are into outdoor hobbies/activities and sports. Different strokes, I guess.
I would say that while many of us are men, saying that this is an all male hobby would be overstating things.
Two hobby shops I used to frequent in were owned by women who were modelers.
My wife does partner with me on my HO layout, but she does have her own N scale layout. She will be starting the scenery soon and is quite excited by it. And she is what one would term "girly’- her other hobbies are sewing, fashion design and knitting. Speaking of knitting, one of the most accomplished knitters I know is a man.
Most male group activities seem to be like this. It’s the “locker room” atmosphere, much as our ancestors went “out on the hunt.” When you think about it, there are few “guy” activities that are not like this. Most revolve around sports, and even “hanging out at the bar” is often centered around the game on the TV.
I think we need it. While I’m happy to see more women in the hobby and in the engineering workforce where I spend my days, there are times when I wonder if we are losing something that’s really essential to our nature. Perhaps it’s the lack of these traditional gatherings that drives many of us down into the basement by ourselves.
There’s not a very large percentage of actual female modelers out there it seems, but I have seen photos of some absolutely amazing scratchbuilt and kitbashed diesel locomotives built by one Elizabeth Allen.