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Why is Esperanto failing to attract females?

de fojo, 10 octombrie 2006

Contribuții/Mesaje: 48

Limbă: English

RiotNrrd (Arată profil) 11 octombrie 2006, 20:02:20

Where did you get this information?

Actually, if you look at who is logged into Lernu at any given time, there is generally a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio of men to women. Obviously, it fluctuates constantly, but generally the number of men logged in outnumbers the number of women logged in by a considerable margin.

There may be reasons that these numbers are skewed (maybe Lernu doesn't appeal to women as much and the women learn eo elsewhere, or maybe men are more prone to learn online and women do their learning offline, or... etc.), and that in reality the gender split is dead even. Maybe. I'm more willing to bet that the general tendency of lots more men to be logged into Lernu than women at any moment is indicative of the general population.

Jhoanna (Arată profil) 11 octombrie 2006, 20:17:24

In my experience, there a lot of female speakers and learners of Esperanto, so there is definitely no shortage. I myself am a female Esperanto speaker. ;o

pastorant (Arată profil) 12 octombrie 2006, 01:05:09

The nickname of Esperanto IS edz-peranto. ridulo.gif

Lunombrulino (Arată profil) 12 octombrie 2006, 14:51:06

In the 2005 #2 issue of Esperanto USA on page 22 there is an article titled, Kie Estas Usonaj Junulinoj? The article describes how en the Kiev, Ukraine, "... junulinoj estas kelkoble pli multenombraj ol viroj, kaj simila situacio estas ankaŭ en aliaj urboj de la lando." However, the author was surprised to find that during a visit to Austin, Texas, Usono, "... mi estis ŝajne la sola virino inter la aĝo 20 kaj 30 en la tuta kongreso in Aŭstino."

You can read the full article at http://esperanto-usa.org

From this article, one could get the impression that young female esperantists are lacking in the U.S., and that young male esperantists are lacking in Europe and Asia (or at least in the Ukraine).

Okay, the answer seems obvious to me.

Jhoanna (Arată profil) 12 octombrie 2006, 21:18:49

I would just love to receive a lovenote in Esperanto.... ;o

Jhoanna (Arată profil) 12 octombrie 2006, 21:33:30

Jhoanna:I would just love to receive a lovenote in Esperanto.... ;o
From my SO, that is! ridulo.gif

Finito (Arată profil) 12 octombrie 2006, 22:00:00

RiotNrrd:Where did you get this information?
Isn't it so that more men than women use computers (which are a little bit abstract tools) and webservices like Lernu.net?
I think it has nothing to do with number of men and women who speak Esperanto. In fact, I know personally more Esperanto-speaking women than men, but in my opinion women seem to be more interested in real-life communication, personal contacts than those made only by means of Internet. Although I would say that the number of women and men I meet "virtually" while taking part in Skype-conferences in Esperanto is almost the same.

fojo (Arată profil) 13 octombrie 2006, 12:22:42

I'd like to apologize to those few of you bothered by my silly post. I was bored and felt like posting anything anywhere, so...Of course I never bothered anyone at all neither my motivation was that. It was a shot fully on the dark, but it seems I hit something...

erinja (Arată profil) 13 octombrie 2006, 14:17:44

In my experience at North American Esperanto gatherings, men outnumber women, by a lot. I think in the US Eo tends to attract a geeky computery sort of guy. At least the ones that show up at the various Esperanto gatherings seem to be disproportionately computer programmers, mathematicians, and scientists. I'm not sure why women don't learn but almost all of my North American "Esperanto-friends" are male.

In Western Europe it's a little more equal, but I've only attended a couple events there and I wasn't exactly counting up males vs females, but I remember that it wasn't so overwhelmingly male like it tends to be here (at least here on the US east coast). In Eastern Europe - Russia, Ukraine, etc - women widely outnumber men, just as that article said. I am not sure why this is but it has been my experience that people in different cultures decide to learn Esperanto for widely different reasons. My friend did an informal poll to this effect - most Americans said they were learning because they're interested in languages or interested in meeting people from other countries; many Brazilians mentioned religious or spiritual reasons in addition to the international communication; many Europeans learn it to take part in the fun events (and other reasons too, I'm sure).

In any case, the moral of the story is, if you want to use Esperanto to meet women, start to frequent Russian Esperanto groups!

Lunombrulino (Arată profil) 13 octombrie 2006, 16:28:29

fojo:I'd like to apologize to those few of you bothered by my silly post.
Via mesaĝo ne ĝenis min, Fojo. Mi neniam antaŭe pripensis ĉi tiun temon. Nun mi konas pri ĝi!

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