We (the royal ?We?) know women can be just as keen on technology as their brothers are, but I was surprised to discover just how specialised some conferences are getting in targeting them as a market.

This Monday a conference opened in Dundee, Scotland, attracting about 80 delegates to discuss what drives women to computer games.

Actually this is not a sociological conference to bemoan an obsession with the computer games industry.

The 2005 Women in Games Conference (www.womeningames.com), hosted by Abertay University, is aimed at discussing ways to get more women working in the games industry.

But really, what the industry is attempting to do is get more women into game playing.

In Korea women gamers are queens, accounting for 70 per cent of the market, the highest proportion in the world.

Meanwhile, women only account for about 27.2 per cent of all active gamers in the UK and 39 per cent in the US.

This is not a fantasy world filled with shooting, zapping or driving, as we guys like to do.

It?s a world of role-playing that emphasises social contacts and network building, according to Chicks and Joysticks, a white paper published by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (www.elspa.com).

In the UK women computer gamers? average age is 30-35, a sharp contrast to the traditional gaming audience of 15-25 year old boy-men.

Could this lack of interest in the west be due to the low level of females working in the gaming industry? The conference thinks so.

Women make up only 17 per cent of the games industry workforce in the UK.

The white paper is a definitive study for anyone who is interested.

It traces the history of women in computing; from the days of Ada Lovelace and the programming language she developed to support Charles Babbage?s Analytic Engine, to women?s involvement in computer gaming.

The first female games programmer, Donna Bailey, created Centipede for Atari/Midway in 1980, a title that attracted both boys and girls.

It was coloured in pastels and encouraged lateral thinking.

Also in the 1980s Roberta Williams and husband Ken wrote and released Mystery House, a graphical adventure story, from their home.

Their company, which became Sierra Online, developed the popular King?s Quest series, which ushered in the ?interactive cartoons? genre.

Next came Patricia Flanegan, co-owner of arcade machine makers American Laser Games and Sheri Graner Ray, who set up HerInteractive in 1995 to create games for girls.

They created McKenzie & Co., which sold 80,000 units, but later struck the big time in 1997 by selling 600,000 copies of Matell?s Barbie Fashion Designer. After that a host of so-called ?pink games? flooded the market. In the era of the Internet the latest trend is to incorporate successful aspects of girl games of the late 1990s and put them in a social setting, where girls and women can develop networks, socialise and play together.

The paper also notes the subculture of women who beat the boys at their own games.

These include an all-girl professional first person shooter teams who take on all comers in titles like Quake and Counter Strike.

According to games consultant Ernest Adams, the Internet is becoming the stage for an explosion in the women gaming market, especially in the area of multi-player online gaming.

The Epsa study found that the top favourite games for women are: Final Fantasy, the Legend of Zelda, Colin MacRae Rally, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Tetris, and the Sims.

The Colin MacRae Rally is the only standout here, as it differs so much for the ?female? games described in the paper.

Other factoids to consider: Women are the number one players of mobile games according to a Yankee Group study last year. They also dominate online simple-format games like Bejewelled and Mah Jong.

So guys, push over. You?re about to be beaten at your own game.