Hello,

After many years fascinated by and studying the theoretical side of magic I have taken the plunge and joined my local magic society.

I am amazed that I am the only woman magician there. Are other ladies in the same boat? They have all been very welcoming and I love learning alongside such a fascinating and talented group of guys.

In my experience men and women enjoy magic equally so I am so surprised that there aren't more ladies involved in our beautiful art. Does anyone have any ideas or theories why?

I am going to a couple of conventions next year and I'm starting to get nervous that my plan to lurk might be blown and that I'll stick out like a sore thumb!

I have been around magic my entire life...as a kid I would attend some local magic meetings with my father (who has been a magician for over 50 years) there were never any women! Having myself, over the last while pursued a different direction than my dad, mentalism, I don't often hear of too many women either! That being said, to me it really doesn't matter, women or men in the art, everyone that I have chatted with have been very welcoming and kind!
But....to be honest, I was quite nervous getting on the stage the first few times, thinking that people might think, weird, a girl doing this! I quickly got over that when I realized it doesn't matter, male or female, you just have to be entertaining, that's what the audience wants.
Wishing you luck and have fun at the conventions. One day maybe we shall meet!
Jacene

Thanks Jacene. Maybe we will meet!

I agree, everyone has been very welcoming to me so far which is lovely.

Most of the time, I'm the only Woman at our local IBM meetings and have been for years.

It looks like we may be picking up another Gal soon, she's been to a couple of meetings and is just starting out.

Everyone is always welcoming to Women here.

-Mary Mowder

That's great Mary. I wonder why. Everyone should love magic!

I do know that I tried to find out about Magic when I was younger and ran into a brick wall. No one really gave girls a Magic set when I was a Kid so I think Girls had a set back in that regard and in a lack of role models on TV. I do remember seeing Diana Zimmerman and being impressed and inspired but I just did not know how to pursue Magic. I had no idea how much Magic assistants like Noni Darnell had to do with making the Magic work.

A lot of Girls get sidelined in style and make-up for a while. (Wish I knew a little more about those things now though LOL). I was mostly into Science Fiction and larger physical forms of play (like unicycle and Slack rope) during some of the years that young Men are ofter getting their Magic chops.

There are more women getting into Magic all the time.

-Mary Mowder

Ha ha. The hair and makeup stage passed me by too! Maybe it was one or the other.

To be fair I was given a magic set - but I think I only used the wand!

Yes, it seems like a vicious circle. If girls see magicians, they are probably brash, flashy ones whom the girls can't imagine being like. Maybe with the popularity of Hermione in Harry Potter, girls will start to see another way of doing magic, like Kim Silverman. I hope so.

Also, I think preteen boys often take up magic to impress the girls. The girls are wise enough to know that neither they nor anyone else can impress a preteen boy with magic.

Are you kidding?

Pre-teen boys love to watch Magic!

They might not respond to a Girl their age performing it. I was not a Magician at that age so I wouldn't know.

-Mary Mowder

I'm not sure I would ever tried to impress boys with magic. Interesting...

I'm also a bit dubious on the Hermione link. While the guys in my society are happy to called 'Wizards' I think I'll avoid the 'Witch' branding if possible!

I think this is a two pronged issue. On one end we have the societal norms of yesteryear where it was unheard of for a woman to do anything a man would do; even magic. On the other end we flash forward to today. There are many wonderful female magicians who blow me away with their skill!

I think the issue lies in the middle where, though nobody is necessarily against their daughter/sister/etc. being interested in or pursuing magic, nobody really thinks twice about this being a reality. In turn, nobody thinks about getting that young girl a magic kit. Nobody thinks about inviting her to their local society meeting to check it out.

It's not that they are against the idea, but simply oblivious to the fact that the idea exists in the first place. My suggestion to you, Sarah, is to be the catalyst. Spread the word and try to influence more females! Let them know their is a whole other world of excitement and sisterhood available to them, and be their mentor. You don't have to be a professional with decades of experience and knowledge to do so. Simply being a voice for them is often more than enough.

I'd love to hear how your journey progresses, and let us know if you put any of these ideas into practice! Best of luck to you...if I'm ever in the UK I'll be sure to give you a shout!

Thanks Mike.

I used to run a Brownie pack (step before Girl Guides here) - maybe I could go back and teach them a basic trick, maybe.

Hmmm.
Interesting!

Absolutely!

I used to be a military recruiter, so my job was to go into the High Schools and draw from the interests of the kids and tie it into how the military could benefit them. If you need any help with ideas and direction, feel free to PM me any time. I'd be glad to help!

Mike, I think you really hit the nail on the head with your first post in this thread. Then again, we are seeing everything through the eyes of men...so we might still be missing something lol

Come to think of it, they seem to love my street performances. On the other hand, I see posts here in the forums by magicians who refuse to do birthday party performances for pre-teen boys. And my senior citizen magic students uniformly report that their pre-teen grandsons run in the other direction if they try to do magic. Apparently it is complicated.

Mike - thanks for the offer of help, I might take you up on that.

Race- You're absolutely right, but then, I like to play Devil's Advocate whenever I can

Sarah- Any time! If you need a reference, just ask Race lol He's become quite the little protegé lol

Mike - YUP!

Sarah - Mike has helped me way more than anyone I know in person. We have actually become pretty good friends, but even before that, he was very willing to help me out just because I was in need of the help, and that was it.

I've noticed that even with all the punk kids causing drama in the magic world, we are still (for the most part) a large group of people who know that if we don't help each other, the art might just not go on in the sense that it should. At least that is something I feel strongly in. And I also feel like I see it (artists helping each other) in droves in the magic world.

Preach!

I think the male aristocracy of the past is no longer a barrier anymore for woman in magic as it once was, certainly centuries ago one could directly point the finger at that as the major cause, so I'm often left wondering if it has anything to do with the simple differences between male and female interests. Women have a deeper interest in people and feelings —building relationships while men tend to be more preoccupied with practicalities that can be understood through logical deduction. Men tend to be more challenge-and-conquer oriented, their strong interest in sports such as football and boxing are good examples of this.

Magic is broad enough however to cater for all tastes, I feel that it's just not being presented in a palatable fashion to appeal for the female demographic.

It's interesting that a number a female posters on the Café that I have had the pleasure of helping in the past have joined the Café to find magic tricks based around the Disney movies like Frozen and other themes. It's almost like the romanticism of these story's seem to touch them in such a way they wont to recreate them and turn to magic to manifest it in some fashion. Personally I think there is a BIG hint in that, that suggests to me that what draws men and woman into magic are at times exclusively different, sometimes simply by the dispositions of the sexes.

Contrast this with how magic is often presented to the general public by ways of a clinical and dry approach with little emotional value usually by the way of inexperienced amateurs or bad performers and we are probably part of the way in solving why magic doesn't appeal to woman to the greater extent it does to men.

This is all just a theory of course and one that I'm happy to be proved wrong on but just by the anecdotal evidence I'v seen over the years that have made me draw this conclusion, it's the best hypothesis I've got. There are always exceptions to the rule of course but if I am wrong in a wider sense then why don't the numbers reflect it differently?

I don't agree with Mikes assessment entirely that it's a lake of opportunity's offered to women that accounts for the lack of numbers because if the person is passionate enough about something, no obstacle will lay in their path, if they can't find a way, they will make way. Take it from someone who's been there and done that like myself.

I do however agree with Mikes idea of running a more proactive campaign to entice woman into the fold of magic, it would certainly be a good starting point, just how we would approach that would be a discussion we would have to make.


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