Why are women not as successful as men in chess?

I am a girl myself, but I don't understand why women in general play worse than men in chess.

There are much fewer women competing in tournaments than men.   For instance, the United States Chess Federation has less than 8,000 female members and almost 50,000 male members.    So there are necessarily many fewer top women players.

Of the top notch women, some indeed can hold their own against the best male players, ie; Judit Polgar defeated former World Champion Boris Spassky in a 10 game match in 1993.

Like anything in life, motivation to excel is paramount.    The Polgar sisters did not like playing in restricted women only events.    They knew to improve they must play with the men and prefered playing in strong tournaments where men competed.

Very few women decide to play professionally.  

Chess is a lot of work. Thanks to the sexual dimorphism achived through evolution, women tend to avoid hard work.

Ha!

I still like the "women are smart enought to know better"...

but then that makes me doubly dumb. darn. poor me.

Guys like sitting on bar stools, girls prefer to dance. Chess is a sitting down game. Conclusions may now be drawn.

It demands dedication to be successful and women are clever enough to understand that it not worth it.

Those who did it is because they started in youth age and achieved an already high level before other priorities come in life.

Successful in men's chess is the top 50 who can live from that, how about the other 1450 GM's ?

It may be hard to believe, but life has better things than dweebing over a game of chess.

Men prefer to guzzle beer, fight, play ball games and chess. Women prefer to sip wine, cook, knit and play pinocle. It is that simple.

Women tend to have other things on their minds. Whether those other things are "better" depends upon your personal values.

Probably for the same reasons why there aren't many women in computer science, physics, engineering, mathematics and so on: For a long time our culture has promoted (and somewhat still promotes) these things as being 'male things'.

Growing up in this culture means that we all internalise it and perceive it to be 'common sense'. The Polgar sisters were lucky in the sense that their father was instrumental in promoting a chess education since they were very young.

With the exception of just a handful of countries, women are still expected to dedicate themselves to child-rearing and household chores. 

In a way, the fact that chess is still gender segregated seems to show that FIDE thinks that they're somehow weaker or at the very least different in intellectual capacity to men. Otherwise, given that it's not a phyisical sport, why divide chess along gender lines?

If any of you have spent time with children, you would have noticed that as they start going to school and socialising with their peers they become much more aware of what boy and girl things are, becoming reluctant to partake in activities that are not deemed 'gender appropiate'. It requires one hell of an independent character or a very resourceful parent to swim against that tide. 

To end on an optimistic tone, these things have gradually been changing, so who knows, in fifty years time it might be a lot more balanced. Ultimately, what we can all do is promote chess among the women we know and try and demistify it as some sort of male (or even worse, geeky and weird) thing to do.

Is that your short answer?

Most people play chess terribly. Men just far outnumber women in chess, so the same percentage of good women players will look like a tiny number.

It's even simpler than knitting and blah blah blah: I want to penetrate your position and occupy your holes.

But I know that Kasparov couldn't be touched for years and yet still managed to lose for all humanity as well as any woman knows that. There's no need to be patronizing. My chess software can defeat most women.

the Polgars were not lucky at all. they got sucked into chess when they could have had a life.

the only thing that's really funny about it is that their parents neglected to have them wear farm trousers, you know the ones with the straps going over the shoulders.

   When women sit at a table to play a game they want to talk and socialize. In chess these things are taboo (unless we play with a friend in a casual game). Otherwise you are risking a punch in the face or worse...especially if the opponent happens to have a hatchet at hand.

Internet chess sounds ok for the hairy half. They send out a seek, some jailbird accepts it and they get all rattled when the opponent talks smack. Yep! defo a game for the hairy half.

Internet chess is for the weenie men. I would never play it.