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Message: [QUOTE="edcwy, post: 3445707, member: 227749"] I frequently hear commentary that the poker community needs more women players. I don't have any real data in front of me, but as I understand it, in any setting, outside of women's only game and tourneys, women will compose about 3.5% of the players +- . For example, if the WSOP main event has 6500 players, it would be reasonable to predict that around 225 +- players would be women. In any case, there exists great disparity among men and women in poker. One could argue why that matters? That the market is responding to the market need and the market suggests that women have limited interest. Is that true? I don't know. The WSOP has placed the women's tournament on July 6th of this year, clearly a token gesture, at the back end of the schedule, but better to have a women's event than not have an event at all. This is an example that expresses of the marginalization of women in the game - for better or worse. The question distills down to mission of the poker community, which I will postulate as something like this: Grow poker. A mission like "Grow poker" can be measured by the number of tournaments, number of players in tournaments, number cash games, stakes of games, number of scandals, TV time, Ease of entry into home games, # of regional leagues, tournament play by gender, or age, general public perception of poker, etc. All of these metrics, in aggregate, could tell the story and health of the game at large. Arguably, having a mission for the community supported with objectives and strategy that support women's poker could help the proliferation of poker and its illegal status in the United States. Fundamentally, there is no poker unless there exists players, right? Clearly there is significant interest even as the market in slow growth in not mature with out significant change. To continue growth, where are the growth opportunities? Clearly poker advocates are pursuing expansionism of games and play by lobbying for State legalization. Arguable it will be the community's job, if women are indeed a growth segment poker, to respond to the needs of women poker players. I have direct experience in an activity where women participate at around 10% as compared to men. In that community, mostly men have set the rules, men define the community, men, on par have innate blind-spots that inevitably marginalize women. Growth in that community is in fits and starts. So what to do? Let's start with the premise of this statement: [B]Women poker players are an important growth segment for the poker community.[/B] Now, let's break this into a good old fashioned SWOT analysis: [U]Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.[/U] Let me contribute off the top of my head: [LIST] [*]Strength: Women would bring diversity to the game, Women would bring intrigue to new play strategy, Have the potential to make poker more accepting in society. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Weakness: I really don't see a weakness. Maybe Women do not have enough interest in poker so why bother? I personally disagree as I think that observation has a historical self-fulfilling bias. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Opportunities: More women in the game could help with the reverse the negative stigmatization of poker as gambling, a game of "sin." etc. [/LIST] [LIST] [*]Threats: Governance, marketing, servicing, might and likely would shift away from being male-centric to include a woman's perspective. Some men might be threatened by that. [/LIST] Discussion welcomed. Go [/QUOTE]

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