Echa shared a bunch of interesting numbers from 2014. If I’m not mistaken 2014 was the first full year of the Oakland women’s league, Belles and Chimes.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bay Area tournaments on average had 24% female competitors (up from 14% the year before). I can’t think of any driving factors other than B&C and to me it underlines exactly why women’s leagues and tournaments are important. They provide a safe space to get started and if they’re interested league members will attend other local tournaments (so everybody wins).
Yeah, I think Leagues are different from Tournaments… in fact, there’s probably some argument for the three way split: Leagues, Tournaments, Shows. Some shows have little or no formal competitive aspect, but presumably we still want to encourage those.
I think it’s too much structure. If we get too much noise in “Events” they can be split up. I’m a firm believer in not create a formal structure before one is needed. I vote for: “Let it become a problem before we fix it”
Events is nice and broad. There are events that would not fit into a Tournaments/Leagues/Shows structure such as social events, charity fundraisers and the perhaps Bay Area specific “attend the monthly meeting of the entertainment commission at city hall”
24% women was average for all tournaments in the Bay Area last year! Women’s participation at events in the region ranged from a low of 0 to a high of 46%. The average for tournaments that offered an award for the highest placing woman player was 31%. Those tournaments were also all run by women, so I’m sure that was a factor also in addition to the award.
Hi Echa! I don’t think we’ve ever actually met, but I totally ganked some of your rules for the Bride of PPL women’s league starting next week. Thanks for blazing this trail!
That’s awesome, Elizabeth! Congratulations on the new league, I’m so excited to learn about new women’s pinball groups forming. I look forward to hearing how your first meeting goes.
Is that a straight average of female participation percentage per tournament, or total female tournament entries divided by total tourney entries? Very different figures. The latter is preferable; the former can distort actual participation.