What would Darwin make of trainspotters?

Why are men so much more likely to be interested in trains than women? I believe this to be a question of profound importance. It has implications for the debate about whether behavioural gender differences are inborn or learned. And implications for our understanding of male thinking.

When at a dinner party did you ever hear an intense conversation between two women about railway timetables? How many teenage girls have you ever noticed among groups of trainspotters? Do small girls ask for a train set as a birthday present? Doesn’t this stark disparity between genders on a matter which touches equally the lives of both, and in which both are equally competent to take an interest, deserve attention?

Women use trains just as men do, because they are a convenient means of transport. A woman will be as well-informed on railway matters as she needs to be for practical purposes. She can drive a train or run a train operating company as well as any man if her career takes her that way — but when she was a little girl she did not dream of the prospect. But so many male faces will light up when train information is offered or sought. For us it is what, say, football, cricket or politics is to many: more an intellectual passion than a necessary life skill.

This glaring gender difference, though on a minor matter, is particularly worthy of study because an interest in trains is not something likely to be bullied out of a little girl or drummed into a little boy. One can argue that boys are conditioned into not showing emotions, liking a fight, or wanting to be in charge; and girls encouraged to want pink frilly dresses, empathy and dolls, etc.