"Why aren't more women in Ham Radio?" was the original question.
Perhaps more easily, I could answer, why am *I* interested in Ham Radio.
I've been in love with radio since I was a kid, when I'd stay up to the wee hours listening to the radio, carefully rotating the dial and keeping track of which AM radio stations I could reach and which station was the furthest away (and doing all this surreptitiously so that Mother and Father didn't discover me staying up way past bedtime).
The very idea that we live and move and have our being in the midst of a plethora of silent, tasteless, invisible radio waves, and that with the right equipment we can TUNE into those radio waves is just so very cool.
And now, as a 53-year-old female, the kids are grown and gone, and I work from home at a small business and I have a little spare time on my hands, and I finally can invest a little time and money in this most magical of worlds - radio.
I've been in loved with radio for 40 years and Ham Radio is just so much fun on so many levels. As I tell my women friends who are often flummoxed by this "hobby" of mine, "some people do crossword puzzles, some do sudoku and some people enjoy memory games. I play with ham radio."
As to some of the unfortunate stereotypes proffered above, women come in all shapes, sizes and TYPES.
We're a diverse bunch. I was the first girl in my community to take Auto Tech. (Best class I ever did take.) I do not understand the appeal of "Scrapbooking," and I'm highly allergic to shopping malls, clothing stores and fancy shoes.
And I thoroughly enjoy Ham Radio.
An interesting aside, after I get my general license, my husband went ahead and studied for his technician's license. In other words, I got into this first and he followed. How often do you hear of *that* happening?

Rosemary Thornton
KK4APV