If you use the 7- day display on Conversation Piece, you will notice that there have been 13 posters in the last week. Of these, 12 are male and 1 is female. (I'm assuming, here, that Lizz is the latter, although I do not know her.) The male/female split has become increasingly obvious over the past year. Given that the site's statistics show that males and females signed up in roughly equal numbers, why has this disparity developed?

The answer, I'm afraid, raises troubling issues about how the site has been run. Before someone argues, inanely, that the combative nature of TW conflicts with the female character, or some such, let me remind you that some of my favourite female posters were never shy to engage in vituperative debates, among them Wildwind, Anisette, Starlite, JarethsGirl, Glitterbot, Ohramona, Shelle, Beltene, etc. to name but a few. The problem is not that women did not sign up, but that they have left.

Although subtle, I believe the answer lies in the institutionalised sexism of the board's Admin & Moderators. I was among the first to point out in this thread, along with Starlite, that those posters who were frequently rewarded with early customised titles and more routine forms of praise were young, white males. (Among them, Dukewhite, Dice, Phoenix, and Wraith2.) The upshot here is that, despite applying themselves equally well, female posters did not feel as valued or as included in the community. It comes as no surprise that they would be among the first to leave and move on. The males named in my post were no doubt inured to their frequent abusing of their privilege to petition the powers that be for favours (they all felt that they deserved their custom titles early—and they all accepted them, of course), rather like the guy who successfully haggles for a rise in the workplace on the basis of his imaginary achievements while discarding the achievements of his more patient colleagues.

In short, the hierarchy of posters has effectively silenced most females, through title-ism, through the Mr. TW competitions (never won by a female),* or through other forms of approbation, encouragement or, simply, engagement with its preferred poster demographic.

< Not even joking.

*Although not run exclusively by moderators, the mods nevertheless could take part. Also, female posters no doubt sensed greater complications about 'whoring' themselves for votes compared to their male counterparts.