Women GW gamers?

[eldargal]

From the discussion in [url]http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?t=346&page=9[/url]

Why are there so few females playing GW games? I know of seven, including myself, and three of those are friends of mine who became hooked after seeing how much fun I was having, two more are the spouses of members of our games club (they do play in their own right, one started before she met her husband) and the final one is a mid-teen girl who joined our group about 18 months ago. A few other clubs we have contact with claim to have a few female players but we never see or hear from them. I don't recall ever going into a GW store and seeing another girl in there, nor can I recall seeing any girls entered in tournaments that my brothers enter.
Someone in the above linked thread asked why you didn't see many/any female players, I have a few thoughts on the matter:

-It isn't considered a feminine hobby. I wouldn't say this is a big factor but it is there.
-Intimidating. If a girl is interested and she goes to a store/club, what is she met with? Hordes of teenage boys and men. Comments, whispers, looks, stares etc. It can all be very off putting. It isn't so bad if there is a group matriarch to keep things in line, but how common is that?
-Ego. A lot of boys can act very poorly to a girl entering their previously male-only group. It can make them uncomfortable, the idea of a girl beating them. They can often be extra obnoxious to the girl in a deliberate effort to drive them away. I was once slapped by my opponent during a local tournament match when I beat him (I broke his nose, but I don't go in tournaments anymore).
-LotR. Our new girl got hooked on the hobby through the LotR system, before moving to WFB before she joined and 40k after. When she told us this a couple of the boys scoffed and one made some comment implying that she was just here because of the films and wasn't a proper gamer.
-Reverse intimidation. A lot of the boys/men who play GW games are a bit shy. Having a girl in the group can be very intimidating for them, worse if they are pretty. This can also be offputting for the girl if people are too embaressed to talk to her, or worse, fight over here (I've seen it happen). In my personal experience I've found being 6ft tall, and at the risk of sounding conceited, quite pretty really tends to really scare new teenage members.
-Brand exposure. Girls tend not to discuss things like wargaming amongst themselves, unless you have a family member or close acquaintence playing how likely is the average girl to even hear about GW games, let alone see what they are about and be tempted to try it out?

What do you think? Are you a girl? Are there girls in your group? Does your wife play? etc. etc.

I'm sure I've missed out some large points I thought of yesterday... I want to add that I'm not complaining, for the most part. The onl unacceptable behaviour is rude comments and (very rare) violence. The rest is a natural reaction to the presence of (very rare) female gamers. It is a male dominated hobby and I would say 90% of male players are perfectly courteous and friendly, once they get over the initial shock.