i see a lot of people still musing about why there aren't as many women in the fandom and honestly, yeah, this is something i still think about a lot too. while i know from experience misogyny has a lot to do with it, i think it's more than that, likely a convergence of a lot of different factors that probably have more to do with the history of furry and nerd culture as a whole. a lot of people will cite present-day misogyny as driving women away, but we don't really have any data from women who wanted to participate in the fandom but were driven away; we only have data from women who are still present in the fandom in spite of what we've experienced. we also don't know how many women participate online under the guise of a male sona; presumably women who've been treated poorly enough to resort to that aren't interested in attending cons or meets, so any number of them could exist, hidden from view.

my personal experience leads me to believe that there are more women than some people realize, and the reason we're often not noticed is because we tend to clump together. we have our own group chats, we follow each other on social medias, i've even been to a handful of parties where women were the majority in attendance. women have also grown noticeably more visible just in the last 8 years that i've been a furry. but we are still a minority.

this is purely theoretical, but i think it has to do more with furry's roots and, like i mentioned earlier, nerd culture as a whole. furry started at sci-fi conventions, and the online culture began with furry mucks in the early internet, back in the days when computers were still a niche interest and the internet wasn't yet a household technology. i wasn't alive then but i'd bet women were heavily gate-kept from programming and early website building the way they still are today; the difference between then and now, i think, is accessibility. women who want to learn programming today have certain avenues through which they can learn, avenues that just didn't exist back then (though actually getting a job in programming is still a hell of a hurdle from what i hear). knowledge and communities on the subject, and more importantly, computers, were much harder to come by. as for sci-fi conventions, "where are the girls?" is a question that's long been asked in geeky communities all over the nation, from dnd groups to comic book shops to, yes, conventions. so then we have to ask more broadly: why weren't women as interested in nerdy subcultures?

the thing is, they were, they just weren't interested in it the "right" way. in the case of star trek for example, they were sending each other fan-zines and slash fiction they'd hand-written & illustrated themselves. slash-fiction has been a women-dominated interest ever since its inception (fun fact, spock/kirk was the first slash pairing to establish the culture), and likely because of its demographics, it's often not viewed as a serious or legitimate way to engage with fandom, much like how young girls' interests today are excessively and openly mocked (think twilight, boy bands, even things like selfies and pumpkin spice lattes). women who've poured hundreds of hours into writing impactful stories about her favorite characters are often told to drop fanfiction if they want to be taken seriously as authors, and the handful of women who've been able to publish their fanfiction were sneered at by the general public. lots of nerdy men in the 80s were more focused on canon trivia and collecting official memorabilia, and would've scoffed at women presenting their fanciful romances or their non-canon art. even now, men in dnd games tend to be more focused on stats, min-maxing, and making the most powerful or broken character they can, whereas women tend to care more about the character's motivations and roleplay. women are more visible in fandom now, and these interests merge more readily; but we still see it in the gender disparity of a con's artist's alley vs the population at large. that's not to say that men don't make art--it's just usually seen as more legitimate and taken more seriously, which is why more comic artists are men, but more "fan artists" are women. (you can see this in other professions too--like how most professional cooks are men, while women are expected to make home-cooked meals as a baseline, or how many women routinely spend hours knitting blankets and sweaters and it's "just a hobby.")

the disparity in our gender expression also has played a significant part. though we've left behind many of the rigid gender roles of the 40s and 50s, there's still a lot more pressure on women to be pretty and effeminate, something that often demands a lot of time and energy to accomplish; by contrast, men are actively discouraged from caring about their appearances in the same way lest they be bullied or abused for being "girly." women being forced to care about and maintain our appearance is reflected in the one notable nerdy subculture where women are the majority: cosplay. cosplay offers an avenue through which women's interests in make-up, fashion, hairstyling, etc can be visibly and acceptably expressed in a way that's viewed as "legitimate." in cosplay, all these interests that were previously seen as both frivolous girly activities and a baseline expectation of our gender can finally be recognized for what they are: skills. doing make-up is a skill, making clothes is a skill, hairdressing is a skill, even arts and crafts is a skill. the difference between cosplay and playing dress-up to the world at large is that it intersects with men's interests and is therefore given a stage (literally) at conventions.

i think the reason the furry fandom is a male-dominated community is because, if it were made up primarily of women, it probably wouldn't even be recognized as a fandom--to other nerdy men, it would just be some cringy niche that isn't worth taking seriously in spite of the incredible amount of art, costuming, and writing that would nevertheless be poured into it. women in the 80s wouldn't have had as much access to the things men utilized to create the furry fandom, so it wouldn't have galvanized until later, and even then would've mostly been online. it would be a silly hobby, a subsection of genres on AO3 and hashtags on tumblr, not recognized as a lifestyle or a community. that's not to say that women would be inferior at creating what furry is today, but rather to say that if women were the ones mainly interested in it, that's all it would ever be seen as: something cringe that only girls like, like boy bands or romance novels.

so i suppose in the end, it does just boil down to misogyny and gate-keeping--just much more far-reaching and deeply rooted than the scattered sexist comments of a few rude gay men. women are here, we always have been, it's just that men often overlook our presence and contributions until they decide they want a mate--then suddenly it's all, "where are all the girls??" i think my advice, if you want to find the girls, is to show more support, appreciation, and respect for women's interests, particularly where they intersect with fandom spaces at large. start taking that fanfiction seriously, learn to appreciate gender-bent head-canon interpretations of your favorite characters, go to an anime con and compliment some cosplays. read warrior cats & watch all the home-made AMVs on youtube. get really into neopets. learn how to make a fursuit. take time to recognize the time and skill that goes into something you'd normally take for granted, like a crocheted quilt or a full face of make-up.

idk, this is all just theories. feel free to critique or point out things i've missed (just be nice please).