A good question. There is some research related to origami and gender, see e.g.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=da&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=origami+gender&btnG=
At least a number of those conclude they didn't see any gender differences. I
haven't read enough of the abstracts to see if none exist - I suspect some do,
after all 1 out of 20 experiments can be expected to come out positive if you
test for the 5 % significance.
The rest of this mail is my personal take and observations.
Up front part of my story talking to other people is that origami is a hobby
for everyone, transgressing gender, age and social differences.
Laura's observations from Argentina are surely valid, but might be cultural
differences rather than gender related.
Here in Denmark I would say 50-50 in men and women, at least at the level where
people are interested enough to attend workshops and talks about origami. And
that is across all ages, 5-90.
Also, I have not been able to discern a gender bias in the choice of models,
neither among those who passed through our society foldning.dk (perhaps 40 over
the years) or those I've seen at workshops and talks (counting hundreds). I
haven't made any counting, but I believe that at least no overwhelming
differences exist.
Right now the lady next to me folds cross-pleated lamps, a highly geometric
fold. Earlier, two other ladies folded angels. I've been folding flowers and
leaves today, and an insect. A statistically totally insignificant sample size,
but yet in my experience representative: no gender bias I can see.
With children I can see some differences: When painting eyes on jumping frogs,
small girls are more likely to make them very detailed than small boys.
Similarly, there might be a (small) tendency in their choice of colours, but
that might be cultural and my influence. I am not aware of gender related
differences concerning the choice of models or genre.
There is one experiment you could do: Find a large amount of photos from
origami convention exhibitions, note down which categories of models are folded
by whom and the gender of the folders and designers (may or may not be the
same), and see if there are statistical differences.
Please note that to make solid conclusions you need data on lots of people, in
particular if you don't control for other variables such as cultural or
geographic bias and if the differences are not very clear.
You could also make an experiment where you let groups of people (children or
adult) select whatever they want, and see if there is any difference there.
Again, you might expect cultural differences overshadowing gender differences.
Also, I guess you might get different results if you let children choose one at
a time, or in mixed groups, or in groups of girls only or boys only. I.e. the
experimental setup and how you control for other variables are important.
Best luck, and please send us a write-up of what you find,
Hans
> On 10 Aug 2022, at 18.32, Kate Honeyman via Origami
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Interesting.
> I'm from the deep Midwest. (Nebraska), and most of the very few origami men I
> know are about modular, complex dragons etc, and tessellations. The other
> woman I know illustrates children's book, does animal origami at cultural
> fairs, and the public schools teach the crane to both genders equally.
> Kate
>
>> On Wed, Aug 10, 2022, 8:08 AM Laura R via Origami
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hi Elina,
>>
>> I don’t know of any published article (I’d like to know) but I can tell some
>> curious differences that I noted over time. It’s just all empirical.
>> In Argentina, where I was born and grew up, I was always surprised to see
>> how the majority of paperfolders are women and the most folded type of
>> models are 2D and 3D modulars (when I say surprised, I mean because social
>> networks and the internet offer many possibilities in the current times to
>> get out of the usual and engage in something new and exciting.) So much so
>> that mostly any group, meeting, etc., will teach only modulars.
>>
>> Modulars, it is said, are interesting because you can use them to teach math
>> and geometry (more women than men are school teachers in Argentina.) But
>> more than anything else, modulars like 2D stars and 3D kusudamas, are used
>> as decorative items, for your own, for gifts, parties, etc., which is
>> another occupancy that women engage with.
>>
>> Modulars, I was told, are easier to teach in virtual and in-person meetings,
>> especially for newcomers. But still, there are quite a lot easy animals to
>> teach, so I’m not sure this is a good reason (again, this is my only
>> opinion.)
>>
>> I can count with my fingers the number of men that do origami in Argentina.
>> I know they do like to fold animals and non-figuratives (other than
>> modulars). Some are also good with crease patterns and complex models. A few
>> excel in tessellations. As opposed, women in Argentina -who largely surpass
>> the number of men- I think only a few are very good with tessellations (not
>> sure about their skills with complex animals), and I know of one or two that
>> can draw diagrams.
>>
>> Conclusion: it’s as if “animals” are a boy's thing and “modulars, stars and
>> flowers” a girls thing.
>>
>> Again, I can be biased in my observation. Perhaps others can follow-up in my
>> observations.
>>
>> Good luck with your research
>> Laura Rozenberg
>>
>>
>>> On Aug 10, 2022, at 7:37 AM, Elina Gor via Origami
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello origami fellows,
>>> I'm looking for published articles about gender differences in origami, if
>>> there are any.
>>> Other subjects of interest are age differences, education and work fields
>>> differences.
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>> Elina Gor
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sender notified by
>>> Mailtrack 08/10/22, 01:31:46 PM
>>>
>>
