Opinion & Analysis

Golf forums: Where are all the women?

Published

8 years ago

Jul 28, 2018

Last year, I joined the online golfing community by signing up for a golf forum. I joined mainly to share knowledge and get ideas for my blogs. This was before I joined GolfWRX. Although I enjoyed this new type of interaction, I realized after a while that I was only talking to men. Where were the women? I was wondering what was going on.

I found that this trend wasn’t unique to the particular forum I was using, and similar trends were seen on other golf forums. According to the web audience measurement tool Quantcast, the split on golf forums is around 70 percent men and 30 percent women. (1) So the question is, why do women shun online golf forums? Also, is it specific to golf forums, or does the same apply to other sports forums? And does this trend even apply to online forums across the board?

Women and men debating this issue on social media (2) put forward various reasons:

Women golfers are, in general, older and are less likely to go online than older men. Overall, 34 percent of men 65 and older use the internet, compared with 21 percent of women that age (3). This is not the full story, as there are plenty of women golfers on social media such as Twitter.

Maybe women aren’t as competitive about golf as men? They consider it a hobby, and they don’t spend time on it outside the golf course. I know plenty of women who are very competitive about their golf, though so this can’t be the reason.

Maybe women stay away from golf forums for the same reason that prevents women from taking up golf; they just don’t feel welcome. Some women may consider that they are not supposed to have an opinion on sports. If this were true then they would also be absent from social media, which isn’t the case.

Women have less time to contribute to online forums. It is indeed true that studies have found that women around the world have less free time than men. In the UK, men have 40 minutes more free time each day than women. When women have free time, they prefer to spend it with their family or socializing in real life rather than online. (4) This could be one of the reasons, but is this the whole story?

I don’t think any of the above fully explain the issues, so we have to dig deeper. Maybe the issue is less to do with golf and more to do with the difference in online behavior between women and men. I decided to put my scientific hat on and do a bit of research.

I quickly came across research that shows that although women and men are equally represented online, (3) their online behavior is very different. And the way men and women communicate online reflects how they communicate in real life. Women post about different things, prefer certain platforms and use language differently from men. (5) Men are more likely to use social media to search for information about certain topics (sports or politics), while women use social platforms like to connect with people and to post about personal issues. (5)

One of the reasons why women may be more reluctant to go online is also fear of negative feedback, which unfortunately happens more to women than to men. In addition, discussions on forums can sometimes become hostile, and women are not as confrontational as men. Taking part in overly hostile discussions may not seem worth the effort.

The lack of women’s participation was not limited to online forums, of course. It’s more widespread online, such as on media websites. The New York Times found that it received 1 million comments on online articles between 2013 and 2014, of which only 25 percent were from women. This was despite the fact that 44 percent of New York Times readers are women. In 2014, Harvard’s Business School started teaching female students how to speak up more in the classroom after it found that women had been participating less than men.

In conclusion, the absence of women form golf forums is not linked to the sport, but rather certain behavioral traits and preferences of women — both on and offline. Once again, it seems that women are from Venus and men from Mars, as famously said by John Gray.

Should we accept that women are absent from forums, or is there anything that can be done to attract more women to online forums?

References

www.Quantcast.com
http://www.golfgal-blog.com/2009/03/golf-forums-where-are-women.html (comments) – site accessed:4.5.2018
Deborah Fallows (2015). How women and men use the internet. Pew Internet & American life project 28.12.2005
http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2005/12/PIP_Women_and_Men_online.pdf
Office for national statistics. (2015) Leisure time in the UK.
A. Atanasova (2016). Gender-specific behaviors on social media and what they mean for online communications www.socialmediatoday
Emilie Pearson (2014) How men dominate online commenting https://qz.com/259149/how-men-dominate-online-commenting/ site accessed 14/05/2018

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Inga Abed

Inga is a writer who in her professional life writes about medicines, demystifying their risks and benefits to patients. Inga dedicates her spare time to golf, a sport she learned before she could walk. When not playing golf she writes blogs about all things golf but mainly about golf issues that are of interest to women and promoting the women’s game.

38 Comments

Lovejoy

Jul 31, 2018 at 3:40 am

Women are generally too intelligent to waste time on internet forums.

Reply Report comment
- barb
  
  Jul 31, 2018 at 2:38 pm
  
  …. or too preoccupied with their dudes.
  
  Reply Report comment
Tom Duckworth

Jul 30, 2018 at 7:25 pm

Women just don’t Geek Out over equipment like men do. My granddaughter loves to play
and is happy with her gear and just isn’t always looking to upgrade like her Grandpa.
She knows whats good gear but isn’t overly concerned about it and knows it’s all about the person swinging the club almost like thinking about gear takes away from the golf game for her. Face it most “not all” of these forums are about gear I’ll bet cave men endlessly went over their spears and bows and were always looking for better wood or the best rock for arrow tips.

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Alex

Jul 30, 2018 at 11:28 am

There are plenty of young women entering the golf industry, maybe we don’t engage on golf forums as much because there are few posts relevant to the trials we face playing a male-dominated sport. Would love to talk about the lack of equipment fit for professional women golfers and such, that I would get on a forum for. Thanks for the article Inga!

Reply Report comment
James T

Jul 29, 2018 at 4:27 pm

I love it. This is the first-ever golf forum article I’ve read with references/footnotes! More of that should be required in the comments for those of us who bloviate.

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JB

Jul 29, 2018 at 8:13 am

I tried to start a conversation with my wife about Ryan Moore’s iron shafts and ………She didn’t care.

Reply Report comment
- Scott
  
  Jul 30, 2018 at 1:37 pm
  
  LOL. that sums it up.
  
  Reply Report comment
- barb
  
  Jul 31, 2018 at 2:36 pm
  
  Have you ever discussed your shafts with her?
  
  Reply Report comment
Brian

Jul 29, 2018 at 1:40 am

It’s the same way on cycling forums. I think guys just like talking about their toys more.

Reply Report comment
- barb
  
  Jul 31, 2018 at 2:37 pm
  
  boys love their toys… at any age.
  
  Reply Report comment
Tish

Jul 29, 2018 at 1:21 am

I’ve a women…love the sport, carry a single digit handicap and have been reading the forums on here for a few years. I do like the forums truly stick with golf…I’ve never see a rant.

One thing that disappoints me is female golfers are NEVER chosen to test clubs and equipment. VERY, VERY sad. What I really want to know is what other women are using, wearing, swinging, etc…or how they review some of the equipment. I’ve put in dozens of times, but have never been tapped. I don’t try anymore. We need an equipment section and style section for women.

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Wiger Toods

Jul 29, 2018 at 12:17 am

A well researched article saying this place is a Sausage Party – and she’s definitely right – and then you get to the bottom and see about 93% “shanks”. My goodness… if we had women’s participation go up just 20%, you wouldn’t see all the courses closing as they are. Yet, here’s this old-timey manly men garbage.

Ladies, PLEASE, show up. Your tour is more interesting to watch from a mere-mortal standpoint. Your growth in this game will save it from itself. Your opinions are welcome and encouraged, and if you have a problem with anyone based on gender in a post, REPORT IT.

Shame on many, many of you. The answer to golf being more mainstream is simply your not acting like belligerent teenage boys. ¯\_(?)_/¯

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bob

Jul 28, 2018 at 11:47 pm

who cares

Reply Report comment
- barb
  
  Jul 31, 2018 at 2:39 pm
  
  you apparently do.
  
  Reply Report comment
Kip

Jul 28, 2018 at 10:09 pm

3/10 sounds really high. In fact, I would think an article of this nature would celebrate that ratio. That must be significantly greater than the proportion of women/men on the golf course.

Reply Report comment
- Joe
  
  Jul 30, 2018 at 1:57 pm
  
  That was my thought. I’d say maybe 2 out of 10 posters on a forum like WRX are female. Maybe.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Just the facts
    
    Jul 30, 2018 at 2:31 pm
    
    And two out of ten golfers as well.
    
    Reply Report comment
Bruce Ferguson

Jul 28, 2018 at 9:42 pm

I have to wonder what the split is on tennis forums.

Men can go on and on about clubs, brand loyalty, shovels vs. blades, etc. Women are wired differently and probably couldn’t care less. Women are more focused on relationships. Outside of the LPGA-related forums relating to tour players and tour drama (aka-gossip), there’s evidently little interest beyond that.

Reply Report comment
KandyMan

Jul 28, 2018 at 9:20 pm

Huh this just made me realize ive never noticed a womens section on the BST. Maybe there is one and i just never paid any attention? Though from the few women i know that do play golf its 99% reason to get out of the house and socialize. The ole “my drinking team has a golfing problem” thing.

Reply Report comment
Acemandrake

Jul 28, 2018 at 9:14 pm

Do/say what you want, have thick skin, & ignore the critics.

Remember, an attack is not personal if the other person doesn’t know you.

Reply Report comment
Geohogan

Jul 28, 2018 at 7:37 pm

According to the web audience measurement tool Quantcast, the split on golf forums is around 70 percent men and 30 percent women

I am surprised that 30% of golf forum web audiences are women.
Do we know % of all golfers who are women?

Reply Report comment
- Jack
  
  Jul 30, 2018 at 2:50 am
  
  Exactly… This article does all that research but doesn’t bother to tell us that core number. Where I play it’s a lot less than 30 pct female golfers. So 30 pct forum makeup would be high.
  
  Reply Report comment
- Just the facts
  
  Jul 30, 2018 at 9:37 am
  
  20%
  
  Reply Report comment
Jamie

Jul 28, 2018 at 7:16 pm

… but mainly about golf issues that are of interest to men and promoting the men’s game. A man would be crucified if this were listed in their professional description.

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