Men v. women

I'm very surprised by your quiz experience, NotTooOld. I go to at least one pub quiz a week at our local and there's very much a 50/50 split men/women. We're one of the oldest teams in the place, but it's rare we get anyone under 30 joining in. The women are just as competitive and assertive (and knowledgeable) as the men. How odd that you would be getting strange looks for joining in! Why did the women even go there if they didn't want to take part?

(MOnica - I agree with you entirely.)

I taught 16-18 year olds for years and I can tell you it is the girls who have the most confidence at that age and to say that women would worry too much about how they looked on TV is insulting. Even in their teenage years, bright girls know there are far more important things than their appearance.

I once attended a quiz with a group of men and women I did not know very well, all baby boomer age. I was shocked when at the start of the quiz all the men sat forward expectantly whilst the women sat back, arms crossed saying 'oh, we'll leave that to the men'. One said she would be secretary and write down the answers 'for the men'. Being keen to join in, I moved my chair nearer the men, ignoring the strange looks from both sides. I won't say I was the star of the quiz (as I wasn't) but when I did come up with what I knew was the right answer I had to assert myself to be taken seriously.

I realise that story does not explain the lack of girls on University Challenge. I asked my daughter once why she didn't try for a place on her Uni team. Her answer was that there are so many interesting things to get involved in on campus that answering questions on TV was low down the list.

I think it's to do more with how they view themselves, rather than how others view them, Anya. Noone's saying that confidence is a bad thing, rather pointing out that males in general tend to have more of it, whether justified or not. Surely a good teacher would be encouraging the less confident of either gender to have their say?

No wonder fewer women take part in these quizzes if those who do are regarded as over-confident or pushy - this is quite a general feeling that starts in childhood when those who always put their hands up in class (especially girls) are not seen as enthusiastic but as 'know-it-alls' and this is of course a negative.

When working for the LEA it was part of my brief to sit in on lessons. I started to notice how many more times boys who raised their hands were called on to give an answer rather than a girl who also had her hand up.

In case I was imagining this I started keeping a tally. The results over several months in different aged classes showed that there was a 2:1 ratio in favour of the boys. When I fed this back to teachers at the end of a lesson they denied any bias.

We let men do it, there aren't many men who would openly admit they have a problem with smart, intelligent women.

My local quiz is almost always won by an all-female team, but maybe that's because usually there are only 2 or 3 men there! It rather depends on the type of knowledge required. I hate sport, so anything about football, rugby, golf etc goes straight over my head. Don't watch much TV, so reality TV, soaps etc and pop music since the mid-70s are equally unknown planets. But most literature, classical music, art and general knowledge I can talk about knowledgeably. Husband is mathematician and scientist and he and son love history and politics, so we can usually cover most topics between us. I'm always amazed at what people don't know rather than what they do!

They think they are :-)

Documentary series that's where my OH gets it from watches them on history channel then recites it in conversations.

Absolutely, it is self-confidence and pushiness that does it!

Yes, I said that in my limited experience, most young men think they know a lot more than they do, most women think they know less.

I think in essence this boils down to more men than women being big-headed, and more women than men being modest. Which is nothing to do with how you are viewed by other women, and certainly nothing to do with sitting at home with a sampler. But you need faith in your own abilities to succeed, and it perhaps explains to some extent why many very mediocre men (and some mediocre women) make it to the top.

I love trivial knowledge... I used to be in lots of quizzes in the past, but men are SO competitive that it takes the fun out of it. what does it matter if you win or lose in a pub/church/village quiz?
i am a mine of useless information other than pop and sport , I have absolutely no interest in either.
My DH is amused by my "blotting paper" mind, even today - like Maggie, stuff that needs to be remembered like her recyclable yog pots also escapes me. With time, I have forgotten more that I remember these days.

Only if one of their goals in life is to be on UC which obviously can't be something many consider important. It isn't about not achieving just about making choices and everyone does that.

I think most people, at any time,who find they are going to be on television are going to be very conscious about how they will appear to other people. I think it was the thought of that that made me not want to watch the shows when they were shown.

But for anyone to put how they look ahead of achieving some goal is pathetic. I find the way women hide behind silly excuses for not making an effort to achieve their goals deeply saddening . In this thread various posters have suggested that the reason there are few women on UC is because

most young men think they know a lot more than they do, most young women think they know less,

more men than women wanted to appear on the show, presumably because more men wanted to show off on TV,

^ girls worrying about how they might appear. So a girl wanting to be on UC would need to have her hair done, do her make up, find an outfit that suited, and still spend all the time wondering if the camera was getting her best side. Most would decide it simply wasn't worth the effort^

If that is really how women think then they might as well return indoors with their samplers and their knitting. During my life I have found that the worst enemies of women achieving their goals are other women.

No good me applying,don't even understand most of the questions,let alone know the answer.

But I think possibly not many girls applied, also I would imagine it was some time ago and we were all less media aware.

Trisher, I managed to be on UC without even thinking about how I looked or how I appeared on tv. I didn't even watch the programmes when they were broadcast.

I put myself forward for the team in competition with mainly, but not entirely, men and got into the team because I was one of the top four highest scorers in the competition to be chosen. One of the teams we later took on and beat was a team from one of the women only colleges at Oxford.

My philosophy has always been to try for anything I want to do in any field on the basis is that the worse that can happen to me is that I will be unsuccessful and I frequently have been, but I have had some resounding successes.

It is quite understandable- nothing to do with the level of knowledge but everything to do with men not minding what they look like and girls worrying about how they might appear. So a girl wanting to be on UC would need to have her hair done, do her make up, find an outfit that suited, and still spend all the time wondering if the camera was getting her best side. Most would decide it simply wasn't worth the effort.

More men will put themselves forward for the team. In my limited experience, most young men think they know a lot more than they do, most young women think they know less. By now I know that I'm yet another mine of useless information, even if I can't remember from one week to the next whether the yoghurt pots go in the recycling or the general waste.

The op is food for thought I would say. Perhaps it is true.

So do I! Being a Scorpio, I am apparently supposed to be a mine of useless information, and so it proves!

I answer more questions on UC than DH!

Well, I was on University Challenge (many years ago). I must say that many of my female friends did find my interest and memory for odd and interesting facts a bit off beat. However DS's storeof general knowledge is far better than mine - and I have a 28 year head start!

Me too Anya anyone want to know anything about not very much, that's me.

I'm a mine of useless information.

Oh yes perhaps it is true that men know a lot more useless information than women - I'd go with that.