Lack of Female GM's

[Saracenus]

I am pretty lucky, my wife is a GM (D&D, Vampire, Call of Cthulhu).

My current group is about to start a campaign in January under The She DM (hey Davena!) who tied for 2nd place in this years PAX Prime DM Challenge.

As the D&D Encounters coordinator at Guardian Games I have had 4 female DMs (my wife, TheSheDM, Ivy and Marian).

In other organize play events over the years that I have either run or participated in I have had the pleasure of knowing about 6 other female DMs.

I would say that initially the largest barrier to GMing for women was the fact that not that many were playing RPGs at the time (I started back in 1979). As more and more women have entered the RPG game space there have been more opportunities for women to step up to the GM screen.

Remember, not every player wants or is able to GM a table. Add into the fact that it was a boys club for a long, long time. It takes someone who is very confident to trail blaze a path where few have gone before. Now there are more examples of women bloging about gaming, running tables, organizing events (Davena runs Lair Assault at my store) and that inspires others to step up.

The key to getting more folks (of either gender) to step behind the screen is to provide a very supportive environment where they can learn, make mistakes and become the new inspiration for the next set of GMs.

Even more basic is to ask people if they would like to judge. You would be surprised at how many will jump at the chance that would have never asked me on their own.

My two coppers,

 

[Naoki00_]

While I myself am a girl who both plays and DMs, I'll admit that I've only been in a female run game once. it was actually very in depth and character based similar to my own games, so it is possible that girls enjoy a story a little more then the "I beat it with my mace" play, though I will admit to enjoying those games too.

 

[Stumblewyk]

The only female GM I've ever had was my wife. She enjoys it, but I think she's intimidated. She's very much in the mindset that to GM you need to know the rules better than your players, so she gets nervous running a game for myself, or 2 of our friends who are pretty rules-savvy. As a result, she doesn't GM often. But when she does...she's good. She brings a different spin to NPCs than I would have, and she sees and relates the story in a different (and to me, fresh) way than I would have as well.

As for why there are less "girl GMs" than guys, I think it's just percentages. It's certainly still a male-dominated hobby, despite things like Game of Thrones, the LotR movies and Harry Potter making fantasy kind of hip. I play in one group with with 3 women (including my wife), and it makes for a really interesting game. Also, I think most women are introduced to the hobby by their significant others, or brothers, or fathers. I might be wrong on this, but my guess is that very few women come into this hobby "organically." They probably aren't forming too many gaming groups, and likely aren't starting their own games. Those are roles generally left to the GM - and because women aren't the group leader, they're probably not the GM. =/

 

[NewJeffCT]

Female GMs? Isn't that a myth?

just kidding. I've been gaming since the late 70s and have never seen one. However, I've never been to any sort of gaming convention.

My last group had several guys who ran their own games, but the two women in the group did not, and I'm pretty sure probably never will be GMing. I'm sure part of the reason is that women only make up a small (but growing) fraction of gamers.

Nothing against having a woman as GM at all - I'd love to see more of it, as well as more women as players.

 

[Aramax]

Where are you peeps finding all these women?Ive played heavily since I started in 77,and Ive only played w/1 female dm and that was at a con.Other than cons Ive only seen about 10 female players in all that time!In my 30 year long campain ,Ive only had 2 female players for about 2 years.

I geuss New Jersey is backward!

 

[Dark Mistress]

Below is based on my personal experience and from talking to other female players in person or by forums and what not.

I think there is 3 reasons you see fewer female GM's I have only meet a handful other than myself, where as almost all the male players I have meet have at least tried to GM.

1) Fewer women in the hobby.
2) Being the only woman in the group. I know I was more nervous about the first time i ran a group for all guys than I was for a mixed group. I imagine if it was 5 girls and 1 guy the guy if he was new would also be less likely to take a chance on GMing.
3) Women in general tend to have busy lives. We tend to cram a lot into the time we have each day, leaving less free time to work on hobbies.

Obviously none of those are fact just trends that in my experiences seem to be true.

 

[Incenjucar]

While it may just be the lens of the internet, I've seen a number of examples of women-only gaming groups advertising themselves, so many of the examples may be segregating themselves from the larger population, making them less visible.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Below is based on my personal experience and from talking to other female players in person or by forums and what not.

I think there is 3 reasons you see fewer female GM's I have only meet a handful other than myself, where as almost all the male players I have meet have at least tried to GM.

1) Fewer women in the hobby.
2) Being the only woman in the group. I know I was more nervous about the first time i ran a group for all guys than I was for a mixed group. I imagine if it was 5 girls and 1 guy the guy if he was new would also be less likely to take a chance on GMing.
3) Women in general tend to have busy lives. We tend to cram a lot into the time we have each day, leaving less free time to work on hobbies.

Obviously none of those are fact just trends that in my experiences seem to be true.

I think #1 is the primary reason.

However, #2 is also important. I think because of the way men & women are socialized when they're raised, it's less likely that a woman would volunteer to "lead" (DM) a group of men than vice versa. While there are certainly exceptions to that rule, it is generally the case.

Look at sports coaching - in college basketball, it's not unusual to see a male coach of a woman's basketball team, even though women coach a majority of the top women's teams. However, there has never been a woman to be the head coach of a major college men's basketball team.

 

[Rechan]

Just my experience. I've only known one woman who DMs D&D. Like female WoW players who congregate on the RP servers, more women who play D&D may gravitate toward a playstyle than male gamers tend to.

Really depends on the person. I played in a 3.5 game where the only woman at the table was the foul-mouthed tactless bloodthirsty dwarf. Who accurately reflected the player.

I've known at least four female GMs. Mostly from online interaction. Only played under one for two sessions (as just as I joined she was moving away).

 

[arvandus]

Hey guys,
I'm just posting to say thanks for all the replies. I always liked finding out peoples ideas about differing gaming subjects like this.