My first time around in Whovian fandom, it was unusual enough that I was a female who expressed a liking for SF, period - never mind the flavor. There was a small cadre of us, but - as I said - we certainly didn't get out and about into the convention circuit.
I remember the first convention I attended in California (TimeCon, RIP) I was pleasantly surprised to find that a good, hrm 30% or 40% of the attendees were women. It might have been more than that, in fact, but I was a bit overwhelmed at the event, start to finish.
Through the 1990s, I attended a mix of gaming and SF conventions (more gaming that SF, admittedly) and I think I paid more attention to the inrush that was women into gaming during that time. In the space of five years, I watched the gaming circuit go from something like 5% female attendees (not kidding!) to close to even parity. I think my surprise/glee at that distracted me from noticing any trends in the SF/F crowd.
I was certainly much more *aware* of being a young woman at a gaming con - as in occasionally-stared-at/nudged in the ribs - than at the Bay Area SF/F events.
Fortunately, I've had mostly positive experiences with both crowds. Only once or twice have I felt like my opinions were dismissed by a (male) peer simply because of my gender. I think I've been lucky, though.
Hm. I'll have to think on this, some more. I will admit that I have *definitely* been lucky in that the gender distribution at conventions in the SF Bay Area is probably less lopsided than it might be, elsewhere.
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Date: 2008-10-21 08:11 pm (UTC)My first time around in Whovian fandom, it was unusual enough that I was a female who expressed a liking for SF, period - never mind the flavor. There was a small cadre of us, but - as I said - we certainly didn't get out and about into the convention circuit.
I remember the first convention I attended in California (TimeCon, RIP) I was pleasantly surprised to find that a good, hrm 30% or 40% of the attendees were women. It might have been more than that, in fact, but I was a bit overwhelmed at the event, start to finish.
Through the 1990s, I attended a mix of gaming and SF conventions (more gaming that SF, admittedly) and I think I paid more attention to the inrush that was women into gaming during that time. In the space of five years, I watched the gaming circuit go from something like 5% female attendees (not kidding!) to close to even parity. I think my surprise/glee at that distracted me from noticing any trends in the SF/F crowd.
I was certainly much more *aware* of being a young woman at a gaming con - as in occasionally-stared-at/nudged in the ribs - than at the Bay Area SF/F events.
Fortunately, I've had mostly positive experiences with both crowds. Only once or twice have I felt like my opinions were dismissed by a (male) peer simply because of my gender. I think I've been lucky, though.
Hm. I'll have to think on this, some more. I will admit that I have *definitely* been lucky in that the gender distribution at conventions in the SF Bay Area is probably less lopsided than it might be, elsewhere.