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+--- Thread: Female players in SNCL (/thread-440.html)
Re: Female players in SNCL - Andy Howie - 29-11-2012
Just thought about the statistics. What it tells us is there are age groups that we don't select the strongest player to play as we won't invest the time in bringing them on. The percentages for the junior events should be 50:50 as there are separate events.
Statistically, as a comparison, they mean nothing as they are closed events. You are comparing apples with a slice of toast and it is meaningless
Re: Female players in SNCL - David Deary - 29-11-2012
Ignoring the comparisons because they aren't quite like for like:
robin moore Wrote:SNCL 5/207 2.4 %
That is grim - 2.4% of all players in SNCL are female. =|
It seems low to me. I'm sure we can all agree that increasing female participation is an aim for chess in general not just for SNCL. I'm not convinced setting a mandatory number of female players per team is the way to address it though.
Re: Female players in SNCL - robin moore - 29-11-2012
Andy wrote,
Quote:What it tells us is there are age groups that we don't select the strongest player to play as we won't invest the time in bringing them on.
Andy, can you explain this a bit more please?
Re: Female players in SNCL - Mike Mitchell - 29-11-2012
Rather than compare SNCL with events abroad I'd prefer to compare it to our other home events especially weekend congresses and regional leagues. That would give us an idea of the relative numbers of female players in CS; comparing it with other countries or international events is perhaps misleading. Other than to say that if other countries are achieving a higher percentage of female participants, then what are they doing differently to us?
You might argue that this compares open events to closed "selection" events, but it would be interesting to know the percentage of active females vs males playing these events (i.e. how much of a difference exists between closed and open tournaments?).
My personal opinion is that selection for any chess event should be based on performance and not gender. Females are equally capable of competing over the chessboard as males are IMHO. But there are far fewer females playing. In a past life (i.e. one where I did productive work!) my company and several others implemented a policy on gender diversity in senior management and executive positions. The aim being to achieve a minimum percentage of females in these roles. There was major debate at the time and much resentment about this favouring selection of female candidates to "make up the numbers" rather than selecting the best individual for the role (regardless of gender). Meritocracy works if selection is fair and ethical (of course, candidates' opinions on what constituted "fair and ethical" can, did, and does vary widely!).
I think participation of junior players (rather than specifically female players) in events like the SNCL is the way forward and we are clearly seeing some of the leading juniors relishing the task of taking it to the adults in the SNCL (and other events) as their skills improve. For that reason I like Hugh's idea but I would refine it to a "junior" and not a female player. My perception is that there are a lot of junior players (male and female) who drop out of the game at a certain point and that is the issue we should be addessing rather than worrying about favouring one gender over another.
Re: Female players in SNCL - andyburnett - 29-11-2012
Quote:robin moore wrote:SNCL 5/207 2.4 %
How does this percentage compare to the male/female ratio in Primary school chess clubs; Secondary school chess clubs; 'adult' chess clubs; and then Congress events as Mike has mentioned?
Re: Female players in SNCL - Phil Thomas - 29-11-2012
andyburnett Wrote:How does this percentage compare to the male/female ratio in Primary school chess clubs; Secondary school chess clubs; 'adult' chess clubs; and then Congress events as Mike has mentioned?
Most recent large junior event was Hamilton Juniors on Nov 11th.
I make it 11/67= 16.4% girls assuming that I can correctly deduce gender from forenames.
If we look at Euroyouth and Worldyouth and ignore duplicate entries and girls in the open sections.
Free accommodation and reduced entry fees for girls =6 .......U8 U10 U12 U14 U16 U18
Free accommodation and reduced entry fees for boys =6.........U8 U10 U12 U14 U16 U18
= 50% girls.
Continuing comparisons between apple and a slice of toast.
They both weigh around one Newton
Isaac would have been impressed.
Re: Female players in SNCL - robin moore - 29-11-2012
Had a look through congress events this season so far.
Dundee Players 151 Females 9 (4 of whom were juniors)
Lady Bowes Lyon Players 22 Females 2 (2 juniors)
Lanark Open Players 17 1 Female (1 junior)
Lothians Players 126 Females 7 (4 juniors)
Marymass Players 111 Females 9 (6 juniors)
Oban Players 111 Females 4 (1 junior)
Wolf of Badenoch Players 11 Females 0
The general consensus of opinion is that girls and boys compete in relatively equal numbers up to say Primary 5 agegroup but then girl players seem to drop off dramatically, possibly because of boys wanting to take charge as they head towards their early teens.
Re: Female players in SNCL - robin moore - 29-11-2012
Can I just add that for an event like the World Youth , the dates at present (November) cause us real problems. We have a very small number of teenage girls actively competing at a high enough level for an event such as this. I recall that 4 girls we wanted to represent us were unable to take up their places or to be considered, mostly due to important prelim exams and first year uni studies.
Re: Female players in SNCL - David G Congalton - 29-11-2012
My solution would be to ban all females from playing chess. I might also be of a mind to ban children from playing too, regardless of whether they are boys or girls.
Re: Female players in SNCL - andyburnett - 29-11-2012
robin moore Wrote:Can I just add that for an event like the World Youth , the dates at present (November) cause us real problems. We have a very small number of teenage girls actively competing at a high enough level for an event such as this. I recall that 4 girls we wanted to represent us were unable to take up their places or to be considered, mostly due to important prelim exams and first year uni studies.
Did you have the same trouble with the boys you wanted to play? (I understand that there is a bigger pool of boys being considered for these events, just wondering if there was any gender difference here?)