On supporting women in Scrabble

Take a look at the typical Scrabble tournament, and you'll notice a pattern: Fewer than half the entrants are women, and even fewer finish at the top. As we at the CoCo strive to attract and retain a broad diversity of players, we're exploring how to support players who identify as women in Scrabble.

To better understand why some women choose to play tournament Scrabble, we sent a survey to every woman who has signed up for an in-person CoCo tournament. The women who responded were mostly longtime players, having played tournaments for an average of 19 years. We asked them what drew them to the game, what keeps them playing, and what has made them consider quitting.

Let's take a look at what they said.

What attracted you to tournament Scrabble? What keeps you coming back?

Several women praised elements such as "the joy of finding good plays," the intellectual challenge, "being around smart people," and the competition. These elements drew them to the game and have kept them playing years or even decades later.

A love of learning was another common thread. One woman commented, "I like that I can try my hardest and still lose more than half of the time. I love to learn, and this game takes so much work to master. I'll never run out of things to learn." One woman appreciated tournaments as an opportunity to learn "how to manage emotions and lose gracefully" - a skill that everyone can appreciate.

The one factor that all women cited as influential in their decision to play a tournament was the tournament's location. Multiple women remarked that they enjoyed getting to "travel to new places." In addition to location, camaraderie and attendance by friends at a particular tournament were also important factors.

What, if anything, has made you or women you know consider quitting Scrabble?

For some women, logistical or financial accessibility poses an obstacle to staying active in Scrabble. One woman missed "having an active club to keep my skills over the board sharp. I would spend almost an hour and a half in transit each way and over $30 in ferry costs to play at the Seattle club." One veteran player observed, "Most of the women I know quit only when they're too feeble to play."

Several women said they've considered quitting the Scrabble scene altogether. Two commented that behavioral incidents and difficulty getting along with others made them consider quitting. One woman, who had previously quit the tournament scene three times, cited several reasons for those prior decisions: "Feeling like I don't have time to invest due to work and family commitments. Men that make me feel unsafe. Organizations that push back against players improving the game with technology/learning materials."

For one woman, the historic mismanagement of Scrabble at the organizational level has been a major turnoff. As specific examples, she cited "the way [a leader] has siphoned money from the organization, the lack of support for club and tournament directors, the very poor way they have handled word list updates, Zyzzyva, lack of transparency in decision-making, and the lack of any oversight by a board of directors - as is common with most nonprofits."

We are well aware at the CoCo of these criticisms and shortcomings of Scrabble's past leadership. It's no coincidence that our core founding principles are democracy and transparency. Where other organizations may lack oversight, the CoCo as a nonprofit has an independent board of directors to ensure accountability and sound financial management. Accountability is a major reason why all of our leaders, including our board members and executive director, are democratically elected by the membership.

Why do you think few women are among the top ranked players?

This is a question that I've long pondered. The women we surveyed came from a wide rating range, yet their responses here were essentially unanimous. The women recognized that, as one woman put it, "It takes talent, time, energy, money, and drive to rise to the top." Every woman opined that women are underrepresented at the top because women don't put as much time into the game as men. For some women, it's a deliberate choice to prioritize household work, family, society, or career over word study.

For others, it's less a choice and more a reflection that, "Women, to this day, have heavier workloads for household, family, and social commitments." One woman responded, "Basically any endeavor where you have to completely devote yourself to it to be top-ranked (or be extremely unusually gifted), you will almost always have males at the top because they are willing to exclude everything else from their lives and let someone else handle those things."

One woman summarized the issue as, "Men are more willing to devote their lives to intense study of a subject that has no benefit to society as a whole." Another woman observed that, "Society encourages us to cooperate, not compete."

There are examples in many areas, including the professional workplace, where a woman who competes hard for her own success may be denounced as aggressive, self-centered, and unwilling to put the needs of others ahead of her own. These societal forces may influence whether some women will do what it takes to get ahead and beat others in the arena of Scrabble competition.

What is one Scrabble experience you want to share?

The responses to this question varied greatly. One woman stated, "I'd prefer not always playing in the top division. A typical negative experience has been being berated by an expert because I wanted to go to lunch instead of doing a post-mortem on our game. I tried to be pleasant and complied, and dissected our game for a few minutes, but when I said I was going to lunch, he got antagonistic toward me. All experts aren't like that, but proportionately too many are unpleasant to play with or be around. The players rated around 1300 have better social skills on average."

On a positive note, one woman said that she "found that the Scrabble community has been very welcoming for LGBTQI+ members." But on a negative note, she further commented that, "It has been discouraging how long it took [an organization] to deal with sexual harassment. The fact that we had to warn female players about [a specific player], and that 'everyone knew' he was a creep, but nothing was done until a few years ago (after he was caught cheating) still makes we wonder if [that organization] takes harassment seriously."

What can we do to support and encourage women in Scrabble?

This set of questions brought us to the crux of why we wanted to survey the women in the first place. When asked how we can better support women, the players gave a wide range of responses.

Two women advocated for "lite" divisions at tournaments. One commented, "Have a lower rated division because always having to play experts is an impediment for some lower-rated players to take up Collins." Another echoed these points, saying, "I think more lite divisions would help. Where men seem to be excited to play up or get to try to beat top players, I've heard so many women over the years say 'Collins is for experts. I'd lose every game and be miserable.'"

One woman suggested that she "would enjoy having women-only Scrabble get-togethers. Maybe a 3-game 'late bird' one evening during a longer tournament. Maybe a women-only lunch. Chances to get to know people socially as well as over the board. Providing space and time to gather and just hang out." In contrast, another woman felt that, "It wasn't fair to restrict admission based on gender (or perceived gender)." For her, "To be truly inclusive, tournaments need to be opened to all eligible players."

Another recommended that we "make extra effort to recruit women, perhaps, for tournaments that seem to be skewing male in terms of the signups" and "aggressively apply the anti-harassment policies and anything else that will make women feel extra-safe and supported."

It was troubling to see several women discuss men acting creepy or making women feel unsafe. We take sexual harassment and bullying seriously, and believe we have a duty to foster a safe playing environment. This is why from day one, we have had written policies in place to fight sexual harassment and protect players from predators. As we've grown, we've implemented broader anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies to govern player conduct at in-person tournaments and also in our online club and tournament play.

Returning to themes of access, one woman noted that, "Tournament Scrabble really only works for people on the coasts unless they have enough disposable income and work flexibility to allow for frequent travel. While I see the point you guys made in your recent [blog post about] 'focus on in-person tournament play,' it does exclude many, many people who would love this game. Perhaps one or two virtual [tournaments] each year would be more welcoming."

What's one of your most memorable moments in Scrabble?

This question prompted some of the most original responses. Ruth Hamilton recalled playing HAMBONES as a triple-triple in one game. Another player, observing the play from an adjacent board, kibitzed, "That's not kosher." One woman cited too many instances of heartbreak to list when an idiotic mistake cost her the game - a remembrance that is all too familiar for me as well. Lola McKissen cited her experience as a member of the Woogles team. Judy Romann recounted winning an award at her local county fair for her beautiful and creative needlepoint board, which she debuted at the 2018 LOCO.

How does the gender composition of a tournament field affect you, if at all?

We asked women how much they notice being the only woman in a division, one of a few women, or one of many. Somewhat to my surprise, most women didn't take much notice. For one woman, "Gender composition affects me only slightly. I do notice if I'm the only woman in my division, but it doesn't bother me. In the early years of my career, all or most of my co-workers were men. I got used to it." Another said, "I have not noticed much difference in how I am affected by the gender of the participants. However, in the interest of overall diversity, I would like to see as many women as possible in the game."

One woman recounted that she's played over 6,000 tournament games, and "the only gender-based incidents I can recall have to do with men being slightly embarrassed and apologizing when they played certain obscenities." A different woman commented that, "Gender doesn't matter at all, but when I've had conflicts with people, they've almost always been male."

More positively, one high-ranked female player observed that both men and women rooted for her strong performance in tournaments, which we were glad to hear. One woman recalled attending a tournament in Vancouver where she was the only woman with five male players staying at the director's home. "It was an absolute kick and a very fun time. I was at least 20 years older than anyone in the room."

What else about gender and diversity should we keep in mind?

We've used the term "woman" here to mean anyone who identifies as a woman. It's important to us to recognize that transgender and non-binary players are important members of our community, too. The women we surveyed noted this, pointing out that personal pronouns matter and that "Anyone who gender-identifies with women, even if not 100%, should be included."

We hope that better understanding the barriers to women being active in Scrabble will enable us to take steps to support not just women, but all players - with each of the unique life stories, perspectives, and backgrounds they bring. On this point, we found that one woman summed it up well: "I think the older I get, the less of a role gender plays in terms of how I relate to people, and I'm seeing people as unique unto themselves. The more diversity we can get in the game, the better it will be for seeing everyone as a unique individual." We couldn't agree more.

We greatly appreciate everyone who took the time to share their perspective. We also know that there are many other views and ideas out there. If you'd like to share your thoughts on how we can support diversity in the Scrabble community, please let us know.