Mastermind

[biryani]

Anyone else watch Mastermind? I'm a big fan, but I'm disappointed in the number of women that appear on it. Anyone else noticed this?

Apparently the number of female applicants, contestants and winners has actually decreased since the programme started in the early 70's.

Why?

I used to watch Mastermind. I didn't know it was still current, tbh.
Do you think women are just less willing to/conditioned not to push themselves forward/put their heads on the block? (I know it's only Mastermind ).
It would be interesting to know what the proportion of applicants was for other similar shows like Countdown, etc.
Maybe just a lack of time, or lack of inclination to prove themselves better than others?

Whenever a female contestant is on Mastermind I always root for her, and I love it when she wins. I think women are conditioned to believe they shouldn't be arrogant or have great belief in themselves/their intelligence, so I LOVE it when a woman has confidence and comes through and beats the men.

I also think a woman is more inclined to be (ridiculously) deemed as representative of all of womankind whereas men are treated on individual merits, so women may not want that to shoulder that should she not perform that well.

Same in University Challenge too. I think it is what both the above posters say. Having that confidence to push to the front, take the chance and of course be the 'token' woman. I do think women subconsciously notice the lack of women and take that on board. Men are everywhere in the public. It is their right. It is like women are 'allowed' in their space.

Plus the questions are usually about men's achievements, so it would stand to reason that history, sporting and just general knowledge is more interesting for men than women.

Maybe because women are always 'spaced out' through out the series.

If you have 20 contestants and 2 are women they wouldn't ream of putting the 4 together or even having 2 women on 2 different shows.

So if you apply you know you are going up against 3 men at least int he first round, possibly for the entire show, which might put some women off.

I also agree re the general knowledge, big bias towards men, particularly with sport.

I auditioned twice for Countdown, and my mum was actually on it, and I remember them saying that they got far more male applicants than female, but I don't know the exact ratios.

It was pretty obvious at my audition that there were far more men than women.

It's got nothing to do with conditioning, rights or being allowed. It's simply that women are less likely to spend their time remembering obscure and pointless facts. Women don't collect stamps much either, but I can't see the world's a poorer place for it.

Don't get ensnared in the mindset that the only measures of success worth pursuing are male measures of success. You're doomed to second best if all you can think of doing is beating them at their own game. I worked out a long time ago that winning mastermind has nothing to do with intelligence. If you don't like the rules, don't play.

That reminds me, I saw University Challenge a couple of weeks ago (I don't usually watch) and Somerville College Oxford gave Pembroke College Cambridge a good stomping. The trouble was that the Somerville team was all male. That was a little sad to see.

I think that those more intellectual quiz shows are less female friendly and encourage fewer women. it is fast paced, dominated by a sarcastic quizmaster, very competitive, dark imposing environment and historically won by men.

What is there for a woman to like? I might be misjudging women here, but these aspects of these shows make it less interesting for me to watch, let alone participate in.

But let's not be forgetting Gail Trimble. Even if there aren't many women on quiz shows, some of them are very good.