Why is the field of Guitar Electronics so male dominated ?

[Phend]

> ....Zeppelin,  Floyd,  Smith who were mainly men. Then came Mac, Starship and Heart who had / have a lead women.

Cherry-picked. How about Les Paul and Mary Ford? (Yes, Mary played, and very well, when Les let her.) Peter Paul and Mary? Mamas and Papas? Starship is late baroque, Grace was kicking butt with Great Society when Airplane was doing lame folk music. (OK, she didn't play.) Maybelle and Sara Carter didn't need A.P.; the Carter Scratch is much copied. Sister Rosetta Tharpe distorted the heck out of her amps, and bent many boundaries.

WWII was kinda a 'golden age' for music women since so many men were at war.

There's a modern magazine: https://guitargirlmag.com/  and a calendar:

[strungout]

(...) However this forum feels more like a support group / self help dojo to me. The point is helping and teaching each other, not to compete, however friendly. I have very rarely seen smug or down putting comments directed at beginners at least in the past decade (somewhat different in the olden days). However, most people have seen enough of the internet by now to have gotten used to the "usual forum conduct" on more popular sites (especially Reddit but most forums on most subjects really), which isn't always quite so nice. There it often does feel like a competition for being righter or smarter than everyone else. This here really is a special place and it would be nice if some more people of different $PROPERTY would share that with us.

Andy

Can relate. I remember thinking that this forum was like the Skateboarder culture. You could almost always just go an ask someone how they did THAT particular trick, and they would tell you. It was a culture of sharing knowledge. Just like here. It seems most, if not all but a few odd ones, of us value the act of making someone else better. I've taught people to play guitar and that is an awesome experience. Knowing that YOU affected this person trajectory in a meaningful and life-changing way... Priceless.

[Phend]

Maybe women stear clear of effects because of the names given to some of the early basic ones 50 years ago. Especially today.  History can't be changed. But going forward labels can.

[Jdansti]

> ....Zeppelin,  Floyd,  Smith who were mainly men. Then came Mac, Starship and Heart who had / have a lead women.

Cherry-picked. How about Les Paul and Mary Ford? (Yes, Mary played, and very well, when Les let her.) Peter Paul and Mary? Mamas and Papas? Starship is late baroque, Grace was kicking butt with Great Society when Airplane was doing lame folk music. (OK, she didn't play.) Maybelle and Sara Carter didn't need A.P.; the Carter Scratch is much copied. Sister Rosetta Tharpe distorted the heck out of her amps, and bent many boundaries.

Here's another one (solo at 3:43):

[dschwartz]

There are 2 answers:
One you'll like and the other you'll hate, in no order.

One is "most women are not very interested in this kind of stuff, and their choice is to make stuff they are interested in"

The other is "white men oppress women and black people by obstructing them to choose to make this stuff" (the reverb movie idea)

The right answer depends on the amount and quality of pot you smoke, and how young you started.

[Mark Hammer]

There's a modern magazine: https://guitargirlmag.com/  and a calendar:

Had a lovely chat with the folks behind Guitargirl at NAMM a few summers back.  Nice folks.  Great mission.

[bean]

Why would the field of guitar electronics be any different than most other fields?

I think that the DIY crowd is generally very accepting of all types of people (genders, nationalities, etc). Other than some racy pedal art once in a while I don't see a deluge of misogyny in people's attitudes on our pedal DIY forums (but, hey I'm male so I may not see it as well). But, take a general gear community like TGP and it's a different vibe. There's some real cringe/creepy posts on there regularly. Sometimes it gets called out, sometimes not.

[davent]

I know of at least one female pedal builder on the forum because I helped her troubleshoot a pedal she built. She and her band have some great music videos. I wish I could remember her name.

Anyway, if any female builders or would-be builders are reading this and are shy about posting or commenting, please know that I don't know of anyone on this forum who wouldn't welcome you and treat you with the upmost dignity and respect. Yes, sometimes the banter can get locker room-ish, but any rude or disrespectful comments toward any member would be quickly shot down.

John did she identify as being female up front the outset or did that come out in the course solving the pedal issues she was having?

In any case here and on a wide array of others forums i've participated on that appear exclusively made up of male participants, it's quite humorous what amounts to a competition to be the one to help the new girl in town, i think they must get scared away, they never stay for long.

Another thought that crosses my mind when i've seen new people posting with an ambiguous gender-suggesting handle is they are imposters gaming the system to take advantage of that extra attention/responses the idea of a skirt generates.
dave

[CheapPedalCollector]

How about we just cultivate a community (which seems like it already is) where anyone doesn't feel put out and wants to engage with it regardless of who they are instead of drawing lines in the sand and separating people?

[bean]

How about we just cultivate a community (which seems like it already is) where anyone doesn't feel put out and wants to engage with it regardless of who they are instead of drawing lines in the sand and separating people?

I agree this shouldn't be made into some kind of identity litmus test (we've got enough of that everywhere else). You're right that the DIY community does a really good job of accepting people regardless of who they are. But, female participation is historically low despite this. The community could grow a lot further with more female participation so it's only natural to question whether or not more can be done to encourage this.

[Jdansti]

John did she identify as being female up front the outset or did that come out in the course solving the pedal issues she was having?

Dave: She never identified herself as female, although the name under her avatar reveals her gender. A quick perusal of her posts shows a very detailed and methodical mind. I saw no evidence of members treating her differently than anyone else.

[andy-h-h]

I'm out

I posted a comment, and have since removed it.   This is a bunch of guys, including me, without a single female voice to be heard speculating what's wrong.   That in itself says a lot.

[yeeshkul]

...

[GibsonGM]

- deleted hoping this topic either moves to a sub forum or just fades away    -

[marcelomd]

Also, on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

I don't know about that.  There are some spelling mistakes that seem indicative of having been typed with paws, rather than fingers.

[mozz]

Not a woman,don't play one on tv, avatar was from a tube tv repair quick repair chart. I'm half left handed though. On another guitar forum, we had a few women join and start to talk about guitars, amps, etc. The guys were acting like the women were the last person on earth and eventually scared them away.

Women at work,(electronics) we have a few thousand employees, probably less than 1% women engineers.

Women at home, 1, can solder, stained glass, doubt she could solder anything smaller, a pcb maybe, unless i taught her, then i would have to show her color codes, capacitor polarity, transistor pinout, she might learn some rules but would give up with all the exceptions.

There was a fairly well know guitar tech/amp maker close to here. He passed and a fairly well know associate runs the shop, his daughter is making the pedals, or so i heard. I haven't been down there in a few years.

When i was a child, i liked to take things apart. Women not so much. Wife likes to drive the Mustang V8/5 speed but doesn't know a piston ring from a o-ring.