Women in wargaming

[Annie]

Not sure if satire or serious.

Hmm what makes you doubt ? Let see

They are not men.
They are not in their 50s.
They are not potbellied.
They do not wear an Iron Maiden T shirt.
 

Yup, that is literally the only type of wargamer...


 

[WillieB]

Actually Annie, I feel that quite a few women are involved and at least figureheads (aka boss-ladies) in the wargaming hobby. Or perhaps it is just me noticing them more.

Lisa and Jenny at Griffiin Moulds, Diane (Foundry) Sally (Kallistra), Susan (Redoubt), Ellen (Sgts Mess), Ulrike (Schilling Figuren), Ann (Caliver Books) Zoe (Magister Militum), Aly (Gramodels), Tina (Gringo40s) and many, many more.

But perhaps my outlook is slightly distorted because of my 'own' MJ who for the last 33 years has supported me in every possible way in my hobby. She doesn't care for gaming at all, but loves figures, even likes painting them, and is the best critic you could ever hope for.

Willie

[Annie]

I was being sarcastic my dear Willie, on the previous page I too have listed lots of most excellent ladies in the industry. Serves me right for being sarcastic online 

Your MJ is an awesome lady 

[Ragsta]

Well done to the OP and the other posters here. My hobbying wouldn't have been the same without my mum's patience and my current girlfriend's support and encouragement. Bless all of them for their patience. My good lady has even been at conventions with me and teased some of the stallholders for the bewildered rections 

And WELL DONE to those who have brought out more 'realistic' lady types in the model industry. Dice Lady is one of them for sure but not alone - major kudos. Okay I did buy one poledancer model, sorry.

[grant]

My ex wife hated my hobby and I nearly gave up everything as a result.

New girlfriend even games Star Wars with me, loves my hobby, and sees it as positive for my overall wellbeing. Now that's a great girlfriend.

[Ray Rivers]

Thanks for posting this!

I think I have always assumed that ladies were a part of the hobby in some form or another but it is nice to see them receiving recognition as they blaze a trail which will open up huge opportunities for others to follow.

I believe, in general, pretty much everything is up for grabs in the future.

And that makes me happy.

[Sir_Theo]

I always got the impression that there were women in the hobby, particularly involved in the business end, but they were rarely visible. Back in my early days I would probably only have been able to name Julie Guthrie and Trish Morrison. It's great that nowadays there are women in top positions of companies as well as visibly participating in all facets of wargaming, and other forms of gaming as well. Having a more diverse audience can only help the hobby.

[Gibby]

It is great to see more women in wargaming; all the ones mentioned and no doubt many more as time goes on.

My wife is super supportive of my hobby. She doesn't play the games but she loves looking at the figures and had a wander around Partizan with me last year. She really liked Bad Squiddo's stand (and loved Baggy) and has since started following the Bad Squiddo FB page, so now guinea pigs and an upcoming guinea pig mug has been added to my shopping list .

[Ben Waterhouse]

Not sure if satire or serious.

Hmm what makes you doubt ? Let see

They are not men.
They are not in their 50s.
They are not potbellied.
They do not wear an Iron Maiden T shirt.
 

Though they may well be Iron Maidens.

When I ran my games club at school Back in the early 90s I had a good number of shield maidens giving as good as they got around the tables; one of whom had a killer Skaven army and is now a Phd and University Professor and a world expert on electronic archeology.

[Patrice]

Great thread, thanks all.

We have only one woman in our gaming group, she likes RPG-style scenarios but not moving the warriors on the table.

So in a large HYW two-days game that we had one year ago, the organizers imagined something special for her: she found herself (her game character) having two husbands: her first husband (a Breton knight) had disappeared at sea, then she had married an English knight, and then her first husband returned home; so both husbands were trying to avoid a fight over the family manor. All of this was included in a larger game where other (male) players were involved in full-size battles.

(...and none of these two "husbands" is her partner in real life, her real partner was one of the game GMs/organizers and he had imagined all this plot for her...)





...Perhaps this not fully qualify as being a traditional wargamer, but there are many ways to take part effectively in the game! Not only moving toy soldiers.

And don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that such non-military roles should be reserved to women — in a 1880s Sudan game one of our male gamers, who doesn't like 19th C. colonial wars, was not given a military commanding role but the role of an archeologist who had to find discreetly his way between all the fighting troops in search of a lost tomb.

[vodkafan]

That's a really nice little layout for the side game! Very simply done but effective.

[Annie]

It is great to see more women in wargaming; all the ones mentioned and no doubt many more as time goes on.

My wife is super supportive of my hobby. She doesn't play the games but she loves looking at the figures and had a wander around Partizan with me last year. She really liked Bad Squiddo's stand (and loved Baggy) and has since started following the Bad Squiddo FB page, so now guinea pigs and an upcoming guinea pig mug has been added to my shopping list .

muahahaha! 

[jetengine]

I've converted my current lady into a boardgamer and a CCG gamer. Alas she's not too interested in tabletop....but at least it means she won't be nicking my paints

[tjgreenway]

I've converted my current lady into a boardgamer and a CCG gamer. Alas she's not too interested in tabletop....but at least it means she won't be nicking my paints

I'm slowly converting the wife into a tabletop gamer - she's all for the board games now (a year or so ago she'd have considered Monopoly the zenith of gaming  ) and she's coming round to miniature gaming now that I'm focussing on more Pulp and adventure style stuff. We'll be playing our first game of Pulp Alley tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes - I've already scored brownie points by setting our first adventures in Egypt, so we could be on to a winner 

Regardless of whether I get her playing much, she's always been supportive of my hobby time and encouraged me to paint and play since I started getting back into it, so can't complain there at all. She's still not too keen on how much I spend, mind (and unfortunately, her hobby at the moment is buying, restoring and selling furniture, so I can't even point to frivolous purchases on her behalf to get me out of trouble there!).

[Belligerentparrot]

One thing that has always put previous girlfriends and female friends off the hobby, in my experience, is the scantily-clad female miniature trope.
(Not sure how far this experience generalises, but for me, the only exceptions to the rule have been a couple of historical gamers, who just loved history so much that they wanted to wargame it. They also hated the trope, but it wasn't so relevant to Napoleonics/Ancients, where their interests lay).

What Annie and others are doing to challenge this is the best development in the hobby since I've been in it, in my humble opinion.