A womans place

[Malcolm]

I can see that there are alot more women following family history on this and other places, than men.
Is this because:

1) Women are more predisposed to genealogy studies due to their closer ties with Mitochondrial Eve (the first Earth Mother)

Or

2) Women claim more "me" time in their offices during the day and less likely than men to be outside breaking rocks, shaping steel, digging round holes, when they ought to be square, etc

Or

3) Women contradict (oh yes they do) and therefore better equipped to confound the false trails left by our forebears

Or

4) Or what?
I’m interested to know.
Malcolm Morris

[Ted]

Nice one Malcolm

Some interesting thoughts - if I were you I'd put on a tin hat and brace yourself for a barrage of true opinions from our 'fairer' fellow searchers !!

Best regards

Ted

[LesleyB]

An interesting thought and a mildly controversial "spanner" chucked in the works there Malcolm - I'm making no comment...
I'm not at all sure there is a definitive answer to be had either!

Best wishes
Lesley

[marilyn morning]

Malcom,

I agree its a good question and I'll post my more serious answer.

Simple really! Growing up I looked up my great grandfather, JohnMorning 's phone number in the book.
Only 2 listed, John and his
son. I believe that was when the seed was planted and it took
another 35 yrs for it to sprout. Would this place me in the Mother
Earth category?

Regards
Marilyn

[Ina]

I agree Malcolm that you probably see more women posters than you do men. Not sure though that more women are doing genealogy research than men.

From my experience, at three genealogy clubs here in the California desert, the men outnumber the women.

Could it be that women just like to ask questions more than men do?.........kind of like men asking for directions.

I've got my tin helmet on

Ina
Current AG chair

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

Good morning Malcolm,

Tin hat at the ready,
I agree that more women seem to ask questions than men but not that more women research, men expect to find the answer in front of them and if they cant find it they tend to leave that part of the tree alone, also who gets up first in your house, in mine it is always me and a little research at 6am with my first pot of coffee is always good.

Apologies to the lovely men on this site, guy's you are great.

Audrey

ps and come to that who is last in bed at night

[trish1]

From my personal experience, women are more inclined to promote family relationships than men - hence they become more interested in family research. I see my inlaws every week, my husband sees them about twice a year - his sister probably sees them more often than I do.
Our contact with my husband's cousins in recent years has been because of my interest in family history.

My mother had 31 cousins and corresponded with most of them all her life. I knew all of my great Aunts/uncles(who lived in my life time) on her side of the family and many of those cousins. I was quite close to her siblings and my cousins and still have a relationship with them.

My Dad had a number of cousins (as I have recently discovered). I met one recently. I knew 2 of his mothers siblings (she had 8 ) and none of his father's family. 99% of any contact with his family was organised by my mother.

Trish

[DavidWW]

Hmmmm..........

My twopennyworth

Based on being the instructor for three week long courses in Salt Lake City (total number of students 50), ca. 10 MyFamily.com courses in the last three years (total no. of students something over 300), various seminars in a range of US locations in the last 5 years (say another 500 in total), plus last year's swing through NZ (300+ at the national conference, and a total of around 1,000 during the subsequent 5 week lecture tour) I'd have to comment that females appear to outnumber males on something like a 4:1 basis, often a lot higher ratio .............

But then, that's not reliable evidence that males are really that less interested in genealogy, only that they don't take courses, or attend conferences or seminars to the same extent !!

David

[Mez]

Funny you should ask, Malcolm…. Just the other day one of my sons enquired if I felt somewhat like a voyeur, ‘poking’ into these people’s lives and I was able to honestly answer, no – I just enjoy analysing the -effacement- out of everything and solving puzzles.

Have never really considered genealogy to have a gender attachment and don’t really know what ‘me’ time in the office means – rarely have time to scratch! Am here because I’m stuck on chapter 10 of my book about a misogynistic (you should draw no parallels, Malcolm) psychopath...

Admittedly, there is a ‘romantic’ attachment to the idea of the Scottish Highlands. I also have a great respect and admiration for what our forebears endured. For me, the mystery to be solved is how they endured. There is no compulsion to make contact with any surviving long lost relatives.

Final word goes to 17 year old son (above) who, as he donned a 'pith' helmet, commented, “Oh that’s easy, women do research cause they’re bored and don’t spend enough time in the kitchen”. I’m sure that one was a mix up at the hospital.

Mez

[ASGROOMBRIDGE]

Hi Mez,

A woman after my own heart, you go girl.

Audrey