Why are there so Few Women Poker Players?

One of great aspects of poker is that it offers no competitive advantage to men over women: Even a sport like pool favors males since height allows you to reach more shots comfortably and even strength matters on breaks. But, since poker is purely an intellectual pursuit why are their proportionately more males than females playing poker?

I think the answer has two distinct layers:

Poker is a “Man’s game”

First and foremost, for years poker was categorized as a “man’s game” by society, and everyone knows it takes a lot of years to wipe a societal stigma off an activity. Poker was originally played in the domain of men, and only now, with the softening view of poker and mainstream appeal, have even a modest amount of women taken up the game.

It’s going to take quite a bit of time for women to say, “Poker is a legitimate pursuit.” Even in the next generation of poker players you see a 90/10 split: Watch any home game and women will be few and far between. This doesn’t mean they can’t be strong players, just that right now poker is still considered a “male” activity.

A final not on this point, there is also a large intimidation factor. When a woman walks into a Poker Room she is surrounded by men. Flip the script and ask a man to go to an event that has 90% women and they’ll probably take a pass. This is why I think women competing in poker will increase very gradually until about 25% of poker players are female, at which point the intimidation factor will disappear.

Personality traits

Secondly, certain key poker skills do equate more to a male personality than a female: Perhaps the most obvious of these traits is aggression. Poker awards aggression which is a trait that is significantly more predominant in males than females: Just look at the number of violent offenders in prisons, or how many bar-fights you have seen with men opposed to women.

Another key factor in poker success is the ability to not show emotion. Another huge impact of society, as well as being a gender-specific trait is the fact that women are more open with their emotions. No one can argue that women are more emotionally driven then men are: Which is often a good thing, but it simply doesn’t equate well in a poker game.

A couple of other traits that are advantageous in poker are being single-minded and being able to lead a loner type of lifestyle. These two characteristics are parts of poker that society looks upon as unattractive qualities in females who are taught from an early age to balance work and family responsibilities. Although times are definitely changing, and men are asked to do more than bring home a paycheck, this type of thinking is still well-rooted in our culture, and definitely dissuades many women from excelling in poker or even giving the game a chance.