[CQ-Contest] Recruiting Women into Contesting

[Tom Frenaye]

At 02:29 PM 8/3/2004, Kenneth E. Harker/WM5R wrote:
>On Thu, Jul 29, 2004 at 12:38:29AM -0500, Allan & Bridget wrote:
>> 
>> I believe that Dave, K4JRB, is correct in thinking that the ratio of female
>> contesters to female hams in the ham population is about the same as that of
>> our male counterparts.
>
>I actually inquired around with some folks I know at the League, and as far
>as I can tell, the ARRL has never had any statistics on the male/female ratio
>of either ARRL members or Amateur Radio service operators at large.*  I've
>always had a feeling that way more than 2% of ham radio operators are female,
>but I might be wrong.

The surveys of all hams that ARRL conducted in 1992 and 2003 each showed that 13% of all USA hams were female.  The 2003 survey showed that 5% of ARRL members were female.    These numbers should be accurate within a couple of percentage points.

A quick look at the 61 new hams in New England during June show at least 13 have female first names - that's more than 20%.  A look at data from the ARRL Southeastern Division for the same time period shows 24%+ are female.  That's a good sign for the future.   

         -- Tom


=====
e-mail: k1ki at arrl.org   ARRL New England Division Director  http://www.arrl.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444