Chess is actually an incredibly good counter-example: The moment women’s chess clubs and teams started proliferating, women started participating much more. Chess had a “guy’s club” connotation to them, and women were effectively excluded because of that. No intentionally excluded, obviously, but effectively.

It's both. Women were definitely excluded, especially in the 80s and 90s. Ads were a little....let's say a little focused on the male gaze: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1k3dre/game_boy_poc...

Games went very hard into the "shoot stuff" genre from get get-go (presumably in part because it's comparatively easy to design and make) and stayed there, and that's also a factor.

But ALSO, yes, the folks making games tended to be male, and so the target audience also tended to be male.

But on the other hand, as more games became available, and especially as mobile gaming on phones became possible, women quickly climbed back up to being about half of the gamers, so it was certainly never about any inherent differences in how much they'd like games so much as just what sort of games different people might like.

There's definitely some exclusion, but I'm still inclined to agree that interest is the larger determining factor.

The interest has been there just never promoted as a your welcome too. It has pleasantly been gate kept.

The early 90's was heavily painted pink and dolly for girls and camo & macho for the boys.