I've turned this over in my mind for a while, and today, I finally made a
blog post about it.
tl;dr - I think that it's high time we take a long, hard look at homebrewing culture and make a point to be more welcoming to women.
To be blunt, I just haven't seen whatever it is your experiencing. I'm not sure if I'm just oblivious or lucky. If this is how you view male home brewers then, I'm sorry. I have to defend them because again, this is absolutely not what I've run into with this hobby. I don't consider it a boys club in a bad way, it is just numbers and the number of women brewers is rising. I feel bad for anyone who thinks this is what is really happening with males and home brewing.
And yet, if you visit any popular online forum for homebrewing, you'll find that female members are all but completely nonexistent.
Really, are you new here? There are indeed a handful of women who are on this site that they are VERY active. Very. Other women who have registered may be less active, but that doesn't mean there has been an unwelcoming tone. I've seen some register to ask about gifts for their significant others and this is a great place to do that. I just can't get behind the whole "non existent" idea there.
Part of the reason behind that, I believe, is due to the culture that is so prevalent among brewers. Terms like SWMBO ("She Who Must Be Obeyed", in reference to one's significant other) litter internet forums.
Truthfully, I never looked at that as anything more than endearing fun. It's no worse or better than saying "happy wife, happy life". But maybe you've seen women turned off from this hobby and site because of that. I can probably follow that, slightly.
Women who post to homebrewing forums are all too often challenged on their content - simply because of their gender - if they can manage to avoid being objectified.
I disagree. Now, I admit I have not been here long nor have I read every single post; however, I would like to say that it may be a stretch to qualify your statement. I've never been challenged here in any other way than a man has been. If I write something, I have yet to have anyone come back and challenge my response. Some have corrected me, because I was wrong and that is what should happen, but challenge me only after I get past being objectified?
It was not obvious that I was a woman until I did an interview. Although my gender is in my profile and has been since day one, it was missed quite a bit. No worries for me, but it happened. Even still, I never once felt as though I was unwelcomed or objectified. Hell, at my age, I just may like it.
Try listening to most of the popular brewing podcasts, and you'll hear ridiculous amounts of locker room humor, casual misogyny, "bros being bros", that sort of thing. Even the sponsors are not immune - one major retailer advertises itself as increasing the buyer's sex appeal (by depicting their customers as the kind of guys who have a willing woman under each arm), another goes so far as to promote themselves as "blowing a warm load of customer service on your face."
Of the few podcasts I have listened to, I have yet to run into this. I am listening to older podcasts though, so that could be it.
I was unaware that there was general anamosity toward female Brewers.
Maybe if you are "brewing the hard way" there is.
There is not. Not as far as I can see. At best, if a new member signs up and introduces herself and her gender is made incredibly obvious (user name or her intro says she's female) then there may be a few more responses to her thread, but frankly, I have never seen any animosity among genders. I've been welcomed here, at the LHBS, at events surrounded around the hobby and so forth.
In fact, the only real rejection I faced as a home brewer was when I met someone, went out on a few dates, he asked about hobbies so I indulged him and the next day I was called a drunk with serious issues if I needed that much beer around me. The times I had seen him I consumed a total of 2 beers to his many...clearly he was all sorts of justified. So that has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with a weird stigma people still seem to attach to this hobby.
