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I also posted this to Ask Lemmy, but I am interested in specifically other women’s perspectives as well.
I have a bunch of hobbies, which range from female dominated to a solid mix of participants. However, for a hobby that has a good number of both men and women involved, there seems to be a gap in the participation and achievement levels in a way that mostly aligns with gender. A friend of mine mentioned we would have to look at how men engage with hobbies.
Do you feel that the ways men and women engage with hobbies generally, but especially when they share the same hobby still differs?
My main hobby is leathercrafting but within the hobby I’d say there is quite a difference to the point it is hard to evaluate. I can’t say I know the exact ratio but it seems pretty evenly split between men and women from my experience.
The difference is mostly in what people make and the ‘aesthetic’ category it often fits into.
Men tend towards making belts, watch straps, wallets, tool accessories (e.g. sheath for knives) and old/ancient pieces (tankards, bracers and other armour/renactment accessories). Generally the ‘vibe’ is lots of brown and heavy veg tan leather, the type that looks better with age and wear.
Women tend towards making purses, handbags, fashion accessories and often fetish/alt fashion wear too - stuff like chokers, spike collars, bracelets, cuffs etc.
One area I’ve not looked into is saddlery and other animal products like dog collars and leads (but there is crossover with the above there…). I feel the saddlery area is kind of its own thing and women generally tend to be more into horses so I imagine it is related…
Of course there are loads of crossovers - lots of women make belts and wallets and plenty of men make purses and handbags but that is just my anecdotal evidence on what seems to be the split.
Online it is dominated by men on old style forums and reddit but that feels skewed due to the general userbase demographics.
Otherwise I don’t feel there is a significant ‘achievement’ split in the hobby.