Why Don't Women Collect Stamps?

As children, girls collect somewhat less often than boys. But as adults, women collect stamps far less frequently than do men. And when they do collect, they tend to do so less avidly and more idiosyncratically. In the lists of competitive stamp exhibitors, women make up a very small percentage of Gold Medal winners, a far smaller percentage than they make up of stamp collectors in general. (the under representation of women at the top of competitive philately may have more to do with women not being as involved in the work force and so not having the funds to compete in philately at the highest levels than it does with any intrinsic interest in serious collecting- lower rates of high income producers is the reason usually given for why traditionally female Universities have lower fundraising success than male or coed institutions). But why is it that when men get older and begin to slow down a far larger portion turn to stamp collecting than do women? Of the many aspects and benefits of our hobby there are several human and psychological needs that philately fulfills. First, there is the desire to order dissimilar things and to make cogent sets out of disparate objects. In our society it is far easier for this need to be expressed by many women in their rolls as homemakers than it is for men. In most homes, even full-time working women have the primary responsibility for homemaking though many of the tasks are now shared. Women are able to satisfy their need for order in their position as head of households and don’t want a hobby that will just continue this task. And second the precise aspect of stamp identification and cataloging has a mathematical and scientific orientation that is more appealing to men of the older generation than it is to women of that generation. After all, there are very few science and engineering types among women of the baby boom generation and it is these types that make up many of the male collectors.

Why Don’t Women Collect Stamps?

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