Chess and Gender Equality
While we often hear about gender inequality in the chess world, how exactly are individuals treated unequally? This guest blog post by Astrid Barbier and Veerle Draulans sheds light on those very specifics. Barbier and Draulans surveyed 709 male and female chess-playing participants and interviewed 10 female chess players to understand the real-world experiences of female chess players and how they experience inequality in the chess world. The result: a 48-page research paper providing some of the most detailed findings yet into the gender inequality that exists in chess. This blog post is a summary of their findings, with bios of the authors and a link to their full report at the end.
The Queen’s Gambit: Gender Equality is not a Daily Reality
by Astrid Barbier and Veerle Draulans
The Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit brought an immense popularity boost to the game of chess. However, there are many hurdles between passionately watching a series and finding ways into the international chess world. This is especially the case for women, who remain a minority. Of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) members worldwide, only 11 per cent are female (FIDE, 2020).
A mixed-method approach was chosen to answer the research question “How do female chess players experience their minority position in the chess world?” 709 male and female chess players completed an international survey about the players’ profiles. In addition, semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten female chess players from Flanders and the Netherlands in order to gain an understanding of the impact of female players’ minority position.
Profile of a chess player
The overall results of the survey show a significant age difference between male and female participants. The age group of 11–30 was chosen for the analysis, since age within this group is not a gender-specific predictor.
Figure 1 - Age of the male and female participants
Figure 2 - FIDE ratings of the participants
Figure 3 - Countries of residence of the 709 survey respondents
The results show that chess players are generally highly educated and many of them grew up with highly educated parents. Various studies have pointed to the importance of science capital for aspiring to an education in the STEM field (e.g. Archer et al., 2012). In a comparable way, this study shows that chess players on average have a high chess capital. Even before learning the game, the majority of the respondents knew someone in their immediate environment who played chess with about a third having a chess-playing father. High chess capital seems to be a good predictor of people starting to play.
Influencing factors to start, to continue, or to stop playing chess
The most important factor to start, keep, and stop playing chess is the joy of the game. For female chess players role models are a more important factor than for men to start playing chess while role models and social motives are more important to continue playing chess. Female chess players indicated several factors more often than men with regard to deciding to stop playing such as disappointing results, but also unfriendliness, sexism, and discrimination.
Characteristics chess players attributed to themselves
The survey data shows that within the different ratings categories, female and male participants invest similar amounts of time in chess training with chess players in the higher FIDE categories practicing more. Our respondents equally evaluated their general chess skills in terms of relating this to their rating strength. This contradicts the idea that female chess players have less confidence in their skills (Maass, D’Etolle & Cadinu, 2008). Nevertheless, it is still possible that female chess players could be less self-confident when playing against a male competitor, as previous research suggests (Backus et al., 2016).
Interview results: the experience of 10 female chess players with regard to their minority position
Table 1 - Profile of the interview respondents (n = 10)
Part 1: The minority position of girls and women in the chess world
All ten respondents expressed regret about the small number of female chess players and agreed that an increase in female chess players would make them feel more at home in the chess world. More girls and women in the chess world would make it easier for girls to develop friendships in chess.
- Minority position: advantages and disadvantages
As a minority, women experience more visibility in the chess world. This might sometimes be unwanted, but can also bring certain advantages. The interviewees explained that people are more eager to talk to them and that organizers are often delighted by their presence. On the other hand the extra attention can be negative with some respondents receiving sexist comments and even transgressive behavior. Special treatment because of the minority position can lead to feelings of not entirely belonging in the chess world.
- Minority position: experiences
Also at the chessboard women encounter a different treatment from male players. According to some interviewees many male players are fixated on not wanting to lose to a woman. This translates in some male players looking for excuses to explain defeats, while others lost because of underestimating women of equal standing.
In tournament play there are specific measures and activities for female chess players, such as women’s prizes and titles and international tournaments like the Olympiad. This reality brings both advantages and disadvantages. While it’s easier for women to win prizes, gain a title or be selected for an international tournament compared to a man of equal strength, the interviewees feel these prizes and titles are less valued by some people.
Another disadvantage a few respondents pointed out is that the low number of women at the top can create a feeling that the top is unattainable, possibly leading to demotivation.
- Minority position: more pressure
All ten interviewees felt they were valued and accepted as a person in the chess world. However, most of them believed they were not considered equals, but seen as a separate category within the chess world. They did not find this necessarily negative. The majority never felt excluded in the chess world, explaining that they were seen as fully-fledged chess players. Some nuanced that this was especially the case for people they know and not always for strangers. This was not surprising according to these respondents, since strong female chess players are an exception. The major part of the interviewees were convinced they had the necessary qualities to be good chess players.
If the special prizes and titles would not exist, the majority of the interviewees do feel they would have to work harder to gain the same amount of recognition. One recurring comment was that female chess players are taken less seriously, because of the general assumption that men are better at playing chess.
Some respondents stated that women always feel under pressure. They were convinced that a female chess player is often perceived by male chess players as representing all female chess players, whereas a male chess player only represents himself. Moreover, as expectations for female chess players are lower, they feel more pressure to prove themselves to others.
Minority position: chances of entering and staying in the chess world
The interview respondents agreed that women and men, and girls and boys, have similar opportunities to start playing chess within organizations. Some even went further that the opportunities are greater because of the special prizes for females. Almost all the respondents agreed that despite the similar opportunities there are differences, most notably the strong association between playing chess and masculinity. Some of the respondents believed that this makes it more accessible for men. This could also affect the likelihood that women will continue to play chess as girls are less likely to find suitable peers due to the lack of female chess players. It is thought that this plays a major role in the teenage years.
Conclusion
In recent times there is already a trend of giving more attention to women’s chess and providing a safe environment for female chess players, though there is still a long way to go. As long as women in chess are a minority, it is safe to say that special female prizes and titles should be considered in the circuit along with the many initiatives for girls and women in the chess world.
References
Archer, L., DeWitt, J., Osborne, J., Dillon, J., Willis, B., & Wong, B. (2012). Science aspirations, capital, and family habitus: How families shape children’s engagement and identification with science. American Educational Research Journal, 49(5), 881–908. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211433290
Backus, P., Cubel, M., Guid, M., Sanchez-Pages, S., & Mañas, E. (2016). Gender, competition and performance: Evidence from real tournaments. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2858984
FIDE. (2020). International Chess Federation. https://ratings.fide.com/download_lists.phtml
Maass, A., D’Ettole, C., & Cadinu, M. (2008). Checkmate? The role of gender stereotypes in the ultimate intellectual sport. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(2), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.440
About the Authors
Astrid Barbier is a Belgian Woman FIDE Master. She represented her country in multiple Chess Olympiads. After obtaining Master’s Degrees in Adult Education and in Gender and Diversity, Astrid moved to Hong Kong. Barbier is currently working as a chess coach for Caissa Hong Kong Chess Club.
Barbier did this research while in the Master in Gender and Diversity program, Veerle Draulans was Barbier’s promoter from KU Leuven. The Master in Gender and Diversity is a common project of five Flemish universities: KU Leuven, Universiteit Gent, Universiteit Antwerpen, Universiteit Hasselt, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Veerle Draulans is emerita professor (Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven), with full focus on gender and diversity in research and teaching, with special expertise in Gender and STEM and Gender and Care. She was the KU Leuven faculty member responsible for the Interuniversity Master of Gender and Diversity in Flanders.
Draulans is also chairperson of the ‘Vlir High Level Taskforce Gender’, chairperson of the Vlir UOS ‘gender, diversity and development’ expert group (VLIR : Flemish Interuniversity Council), co-chair of a workgroup in the COST program, ‘Reducing Old-Age Social Exclusion: Collaborations in Research and Policy (ROSEnet)’ and she collaborated with South Partners, such as Bahir Dar University, Mekelle University and Arba Minch University, Ethiopia, Limpopo University, South Africa, UCB Bolivia, RU Rwanda and Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Ecuador (Vlir UOS). She coordinated a gender sensitive Joint Doctoral Summer School in low income partner countries (Vlir UOS). She is also a member of the Board of Governors of Emmaus, a set of care facilities in Flanders, Belgium. Her email is [email protected]
Correspondence about this blog post and about the full report should go to: [email protected]
