# Why are more speedcubers male than female?



## greentgoatgal (Sep 30, 2017)

Surely guys can't be that much more competitive. 

Also, any estimates on the exact ratio?


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## DGCubes (Sep 30, 2017)

greentgoatgal said:


> Surely guys can't be that much more competitive.
> 
> Also, any estimates on the exact ratio?



As of the August 3rd WCA database export (I used it to find out which first names were the most common in the WCA), there were 71373 males and 7468 females who have competed officially, for a male:female ratio of about 90.5:9.5, or about 9.53:1. I think a lot of it is just because more guys are naturally into this sort of nerdy hobby. 

Although, I definitely think the percentages would go up over time for females. That'd be an interesting graph.


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## EmperorZant (Sep 30, 2017)

I remember reading that males (on average) have better spacial reasoning skills than females, so that's probably a contributor. And yeah, culturally, it's a nerdy hobby for sure.


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## AlphaSheep (Sep 30, 2017)

I'm sure it's probably for the same reason that there are so few female engineers. Around the world, the general cultural perception is that the mathematical and technical fields are somehow more masculine. Because of this, toys and hobbies that involved more of a caring and nurturing aspect were perceived by society as "for girls", and toys and hobbies that were more challenging and technical were perceived as "for boys". It's really unfortunate that Rubik's cube falls into the boy's category. 

I hope that by the time my children get to the age where they are ready to choose a career, that they can do so without having their dreams skewed by cultural perceptions of gender roles.


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## obelisk477 (Sep 30, 2017)

I think in general, men tend to be better at compartmentalization and segmentation, whereas women tend to be better at synthesis and integration. Both are great, but both have their strengths and weaknesses.

So if you apply that to cubing, and especially when first learning to cube, a guy may find it easier to chew through each individual step and focus on each one one at a time, whereas women may tend to focus on the effects on the whole, which is a particularly hard thing to do with a Rubik's cube.

Also, as for _competitive_ speedsolving, I really think it does come down to competitive hormones. More testosterone = more competitive almost every time, even in studies where they've given women testosterone and men extra testosterone.


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## WACWCA (Sep 30, 2017)

I don't necessarily think it's because men are smarter than women, because that gap is far too small to explain a near 10-1 ratio. The small amount of girls that compete also makes it less likely for more to join. It's most likely something do with culture somewhere along the line


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## applezfall (Sep 30, 2017)

probably cause they dont care


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## 1973486 (Sep 30, 2017)

Cary has the percentage "active" female cubers here.


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## Mastermind2368 (Sep 30, 2017)

I agree with everyone. I think that its something that males find more appealing then females. Why? Well I have thought about it and this is what I think. So when you talk to people and ask them, "How did you start cubing?" you get a few answers. Most of the common ones are things like, "A video on YouTube about the cube was in my recommended." or "My friend did it at school and I wanted to be cool like them." and, "I saw a cube in Walmart and decided to buy it." I am male, so I can't say for sure, but I have thought that females probably wouldn't want to learn because of one of those reasons. Also what someone else said, the more females into it, more females will want to start cubing. This is all just my opinion, so don't you don't need to say you disagree with me, I already know most of you probably do.


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## pglewis (Sep 30, 2017)

My instincts say it's almost entirely cultural. Most of us aren't savants and require lots of practice to improve the spatial IQ specific to speedsolving and I believe that negates any slight gender advantage for spatial reasoning, if it exists.


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## ComputerGuy365 (Sep 30, 2017)

because its a nerdy hobby and girls typically arent interesting in it

just like how guys typically don't like dancing classes


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## Gomorrite (Sep 30, 2017)

1973486 said:


> Cary has the percentage "active" female cubers here.


So the percentage of active female cubers is actually decreasing. Not good.


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## One Wheel (Sep 30, 2017)

The issue of spatial reasoning makes some sense to me, on the other hand . . . .

I have 4 younger brothers and 5 younger sisters. 4 of the sisters and one brother (and one sister-in-law, back when she and my brother were just dating) have expressed interest in learning how to solve the cube, one sister, one brother, and the sister-in-law have taken the time to actually learn how to solve it, but none of them have the inclination to take up speedsolving. I have noticed that when people pick up cubes lying around the house guys are more likely to pick up standard cubes and the girls pick up shape mods.


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## EmperorZant (Sep 30, 2017)

One Wheel said:


> The issue of spatial reasoning makes some sense to me, on the other hand . . . .
> 
> I have 4 younger brothers and 5 younger sisters. 4 of the sisters and one brother (and one sister-in-law, back when she and my brother were just dating) have expressed interest in learning how to solve the cube, one sister, one brother, and the sister-in-law have taken the time to actually learn how to solve it, but none of them have the inclination to take up speedsolving. I have noticed that when people pick up cubes lying around the house guys are more likely to pick up standard cubes and the girls pick up shape mods.


This is a little off-topic, but your post reminded me of my 8-year old nephew and 6-year old niece, who both like my shapeshifting windmill 3x3 out of all my puzzles (especially when they _make it_ look like a windmill).


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## Micah Walker (Oct 1, 2017)

One Wheel said:


> The issue of spatial reasoning makes some sense to me, on the other hand . . . .
> 
> I have 4 younger brothers and 5 younger sisters. 4 of the sisters and one brother (and one sister-in-law, back when she and my brother were just dating) have expressed interest in learning how to solve the cube, one sister, one brother, and the sister-in-law have taken the time to actually learn how to solve it, but none of them have the inclination to take up speedsolving. I have noticed that when people pick up cubes lying around the house guys are more likely to pick up standard cubes and the girls pick up shape mods.


 And I thought my 6 kid Family was huge!


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## One Wheel (Oct 1, 2017)

Micah Walker said:


> And I thought my 6 kid Family was huge!


Nah, that's nothing ;-). Seriously though, big families are cool. I have a friend from college who was the oldest of 12. When he got married his parents went and adopted 4 more.


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## ComputerGuy365 (Oct 1, 2017)

One Wheel said:


> Nah, that's nothing ;-). Seriously though, big families are cool. I have a friend from college who was the oldest of 12. When he got married his parents went and adopted 4 more.


I would ****ing hate that lol. I am in a family of four and I feel like anymore would be too much. And what kind of parents want to raise 10+ children? I've honestly considered not having kids.


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## FastCubeMaster (Oct 1, 2017)

I've always noticed women are more interested in Megaminx.
I remember pulling out my Megaminx and my mum said: "woah that's a cool one, that's my favourite".


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## turtwig (Oct 1, 2017)

FastCubeMaster said:


> I've always noticed women are more interested in Megaminx.
> I remember pulling out my Megaminx and my mum said: "woah that's a cool one, that's my favourite".



That's pretty interesting, considering that Megaminx is the only event that a female held a WR in. It also seems like the female preferring shape mods theory may be true. It might be a coincidence, but I found that the best female rank was very good in the non-cubic puzzles (2nd in Megaminx, 8th in Pyraminx, 3rd in Square-1). Clock was the only non-cubic puzzle where a female did not rank top 10. The other events where a female ranked top 10 was 3BLD and Skewb, and they ranked from around 20-40 in the other events.


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## Malkom (Oct 1, 2017)

The brain structures of men and women are pretty different. Males tend to prefer mechanical/"dead" things and females are more social. 
Of course culture plays a part but it's not like its the evil patriarchy that dumbs down women just for the lolz.


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## F2LCub (Oct 14, 2017)

I've watched videos of loads of competitions and can never recall a single girl competing - it seems to be overwhelmingly guys.

It seems as though the reason why there are fewer girls who are fast is just because there are far fewer of them in cubing in general. 

Why is the whole thing so male dominated and what would be a reason why more guys get into cubing?


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## shadowslice e (Oct 14, 2017)

I think there are two main reasons: both sort of self perpetuating.

1) Cubing and puzzle games like it are stereotypically male activities in a similar way to maths, science etc. This means that males are more likely to be set something like cubing as a challenge. This is also likely linked to the amount of interest as when I learned there was a group of us who learned how to cube and all were male although there were also a couple female who learned. For he most part those who learned were just those who seemed most interested. 

2) Most cubers are male and most (especially as many cubers are children or young teenagers) will have predominantly male friends. This means that male humans will have more exposure and be more likely to learn it.


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## Gomorrite (Oct 14, 2017)

I don't really know, but about 8% of active cubers are female. It used to be up to 12% some years ago, so the situation is worsening.


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## Isaac Lai (Oct 14, 2017)

Gomorrite said:


> I don't really know, but about 8% of active cubers are female. It used to be up to 12% some years ago, so the situation is worsening.


I think it's just the fact that speedcubing is growing, but (as mentioned above) more speedcubers being male to begin with means that more males are likely to be exposed to speedcubing. Thus, the male proportion of cubers grows at a higher rate compared to the female proportion of cubers. However, on the whole, the number of female cubers is increasing.


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## F2LCub (Oct 14, 2017)

So what's the reason that it's stereotypically male in the first place?


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## obelisk477 (Oct 14, 2017)

Gomorrite said:


> I don't really know, but about 8% of active cubers are female. It used to be up to 12% some years ago, so the situation is worsening.



"The situation is worsening". Lol you sound like you're reporting a category 5 hurricane or hostage situation.

I see that it's a thing, but who cares? There are things that women do more of, and things that men do more of. And it's fine if either switch between. No one ever asks why men don't play volleyball or cheerlead.


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## Underwatercuber (Oct 22, 2017)

Could you add a poll option “other”?


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## One Wheel (Oct 22, 2017)

Underwatercuber said:


> Could you add a poll option “other”?


Do you really want that debate here?


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## FastCubeMaster (Oct 22, 2017)

obelisk477 said:


> No one ever asks why men don't play volleyball


D:


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## Underwatercuber (Oct 22, 2017)

One Wheel said:


> Do you really want that debate here?


Fite me, I identify as a transfluid-non-genderspecific-hemaohroditic-tractor


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## One Wheel (Oct 23, 2017)

Underwatercuber said:


> Fite me, I identify as a transfluid-non-genderspecific-hemaohroditic-tractor



I think that describes all tractors. I don't suppose you could help me do some plowing next spring?


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## greentgoatgal (Oct 23, 2017)

Underwatercuber said:


> Fite me, I identify as a transfluid-non-genderspecific-hemaohroditic-tractor


I guess you aren't on the male-female spectrum then. So you will have to start your own discussion thread


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## Max Cruz (Oct 23, 2017)

Why is the situation worsening? What defines a "perfect" equilibrium? Sometimes, different fields are just dominated by one gender. There's nothing wrong with that...


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## Max Cruz (Oct 23, 2017)

DGCubes said:


> As of the August 3rd WCA database export (I used it to find out which first names were the most common in the WCA), there were 71373 males and 7468 females who have competed officially, for a male:female ratio of about 90.5:9.5, or about 9.53:1. I think a lot of it is just because more guys are naturally into this sort of nerdy hobby.
> 
> Although, I definitely think the percentages would go up over time for females. That'd be an interesting graph.



Just wondering, what are the most common first names?


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## xyzzy (Oct 23, 2017)

Underwatercuber said:


> Fite me, I identify as a transfluid-non-genderspecific-hemaohroditic-tractor


Do you, really? Or are you just making fun of real people who don't fit nicely into categories because they're easy targets? (Funny thing that; when you have fuzzy categories, sometimes things don't clearly fit into them. _How totally mysterious._)


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## Roman (Oct 23, 2017)

Just came here to see some *kitchen* jokes but this thread is so SCIENCE, meh


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## DGCubes (Oct 23, 2017)

Max Cruz said:


> Just wondering, what are the most common first names?



Name, frequency, percentage:
Daniel 706 0.8908%
David 485 0.6119%
Juan 406 0.5123%
Michael 356 0.4492%
Nguyễn 348 0.4391%
Muhammad 323 0.4075%
Ryan 320 0.4037%
Alex 318 0.4012%
Kevin 311 0.3924%
Matthew 293 0.3697%

So, Daniel by a long shot as of August.


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## Max Cruz (Oct 23, 2017)

Roman said:


> Just came here to see some *kitchen* jokes but this thread is so SCIENCE, meh



Fine, I'll say it:


Spoiler: Kitchen Joke



Little Johnny's preschool class went on a field trip to the fire station. The firefighter giving the presentation held up a smoke detector and asked the class: "Does anyone know what this is?"

Little Johnny's hand shot up and the firefighter called on him.

Little Johnny replied: "That's how Mommy knows supper is ready!"


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## Gomorrite (Oct 23, 2017)

Interesting how some of the countries with a higher percentage female cubers are countries of muslim majority.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hCee2Y9-0G7TIimpoRS5pzJpD10EvUl_LGs2xujQT-g/edit?usp=sharing


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## One Wheel (Oct 23, 2017)

Gomorrite said:


> Interesting how some of the countries with a higher percentage female cubers are countries of muslim majority.
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hCee2Y9-0G7TIimpoRS5pzJpD10EvUl_LGs2xujQT-g/edit?usp=sharing


That is interesting, I would note, though, that those are very small sample sizes on both ends of that list.


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## Max Cruz (Oct 23, 2017)

Gomorrite said:


> Interesting how some of the countries with a higher percentage female cubers are countries of muslim majority.
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hCee2Y9-0G7TIimpoRS5pzJpD10EvUl_LGs2xujQT-g/edit?usp=sharing



What do you believe causes this? Is it more than just an interesting correlation?


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## One Wheel (Oct 23, 2017)

Max Cruz said:


> What do you believe causes this? Is it more than just an interesting correlation?



If I were to guess I'd say that if we were dealing with statistically significant numbers it might have to do with gender disparities in educational opportunities.


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## Isaac Lai (Oct 24, 2017)

Gomorrite said:


> Interesting how some of the countries with a higher percentage female cubers are countries of muslim majority.
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hCee2Y9-0G7TIimpoRS5pzJpD10EvUl_LGs2xujQT-g/edit?usp=sharing


It's worth noting that almost all the cubers from the countries at the top of the list live outside their respective countries. Also, I'm almost certain the Surinamese cubers are somehow related.


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## Gomorrite (Oct 24, 2017)

Isaac Lai said:


> It's worth noting that almost all the cubers from the countries at the top of the list live outside their respective countries. Also, I'm almost certain the Surinamese cubers are somehow related.


That could be the case with a few cubers from countries that never held a competition, but Morocco, Algeria, United Arab Emirates or Tunisia all had competitions. I actually think most of them do live in those countries.

The Surinamese probably do live in The Netherlands.


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## turtwig (Oct 24, 2017)

Max Cruz said:


> What do you believe causes this? Is it more than just an interesting correlation?



It's probably just that these countries have very few cubers, so the proportion is susceptible to more variation. If we look at the bottom of the list we get the same kind of countries, so I don't think it really has to do with the countries.


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## AlphaSheep (Oct 25, 2017)

turtwig said:


> It's probably just that these countries have very few cubers, so the proportion is susceptible to more variation. If we look at the bottom of the list we get the same kind of countries, so I don't think it really has to do with the countries.


This discussion is actually quite interesting. If you ignore countries with less than 100 competitors, then the Muslim countries with a very low percentage of female cubers are in east Asia, (Malaysia, Indonesia), and the ones with a very high percentage of female cubers are in North Africa (Tunisia, Algeria). While these countries share a common religion, they are culturally very different, and that is very likely to have an impact on stats like this.


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## abunickabhi (Nov 27, 2022)

Reviving this post as I think it needs more discussion:

Raising a few questions:


How much of the gender gap (in cubing) is caused by sexism?
I'm really curious as to why there is such a large gender gap in cubing?


On the other hand, as pointed out by Jacob on CF, Real talk, cubing is far ahead of other mental game sports in the gender gap. Cubing is about 10% female, whereas chess, tcgs, crossword, memory champs, and more are all around 1%. And that’s all more due to social perception, that should lean more and more better every year.


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## Eli Apperson (Nov 27, 2022)

abunickabhi said:


> Reviving this post as I think it needs more discussion:
> 
> Raising a few questions:
> 
> ...


Um, none of it. I don't know where you'd get that idea.'
I'm really curious as to why there is such a large gender gap in cubing?
Contrary to popular opinion these days, there actually is a difference between the male and female gender, and this causes some hobbies/fields of interest to be more appealing to the respective genders


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## Thom S. (Nov 27, 2022)

Eli Apperson said:


> Um, none of it. I don't know where you'd get that idea.'
> I'm really curious as to why there is such a large gender gap in cubing?
> Contrary to popular opinion these days, there actually is a difference between the male and female gender, and this causes some hobbies/fields of interest to be more appealing to the respective genders


There are more feminist opinions that I won't get into. Yet.
I wouldn't say that there is a lot of sexism in the cubing. Maybe there is a lot of gender gatekeeping with kids(there more certainly is), where boys will "humiliate" girls trying to get them off of what they like.
The fact that many women are still told to stay off of complicated things might indeed affect if there is sexism or not, but again, I don't wanna get into this any more.

I'm not sure there is anyone arguing that there are no differences betreen the male and female sex. There most cartainly are many anatomical differences. It's argued about if there are non-anatomical differences as well between all sexes, genders, gender identities.


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## OldSwiss (Nov 28, 2022)

Under the kids of my friends there are more girls that know how to solve a cube than boys.
Some of them are faster and more secure, some of them al little bit less, but they all are still on the LBL level.

But I think no one of them ever thought about going to a competition.
Maybe boys are just more competitive, maybe it scares girls off to go at events with 90% boys.

Besides of this, there are/were no events in our area.


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## Thom S. (Nov 28, 2022)

OldSwiss said:


> maybe it scares girls off to go at events with 90% boys.


Had a girl in my company years ago as an apprentice.
She was too scared to go to vocational school for 10 weeks as she would be the only girl that turnus and promptly quit because of that as her reasoning.


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