Why so few women reach top rank of chess

The author of the book: Go! More Than a Game by Peter Shotwell, left a comment to my last post on the BaconLOG (usgo.org/bobhighlibrary). These are the articles: Go and Cognition
How do we learn to play go? What makes masters stronger than the rest of us? Peter Shotwell summarizes and discusses studies of go players that try to understand the nature of thought itself. Related chess studies are also discussed.
Appendix I: Some Updates and Commentaries
Appendix II: From Human Temporal Difference Learning to Monte Carlo Computer Go: Interviews with Rémi Coulom, Olivier Teytaud, and David Fotland

This is the title: Reflections on Language and Philosophy in Regard to Cognitive Psychology, Artificial Intelligence and Educational Studies of Chess and Go
by Peter Shotwell

I took the time to read each of them, and also clicked on to do further reading. There is much more chess than Go, as there have been many more studies relating to chess than to Go. I thought I would share the information with the chess community.
To my surprise I also learned that studies in which I had taken part at the Georgia Institute of Technology under Professor Salthouse were included!
He quotes from a PhD thesis of Christopher Chabris (C. Chabris; Cognitive and Neuropsychological Mechanisms of Expertise: Studies with Chess Masters; PhD thesis; Harvard University; 1999.),the editor in chief of the AMERICAN CHESS JOURNAL, which was published in the early 90’s. It was an excellent publication, but, unfortunately, only a few issues were published.
Having written previously on the subject of the physical differences between men and women and how the differences may affect the relative strength of women in relation to men who play chess, something Peter quoted caught my attention: “He even offers a reason for why such a small number of women reach the top ranks of chess. The right-hemisphere advantage for recognition of faces declines during the menstrual cycles and face-recognition and the pattern-recognition mechanisms of chess players is thought to take place in the right temporal lobe (the FFA or ‘fusiform face area)”.
The only other time I have read about a woman’s menstrual cycle in relation to chess is in the excellent book: Chess Bitch: Women In The Ultimate Intellectual Sport by Jennifer Shahade.

Before focusing in on physiological reasons, societal reasons need to also be considered. As mentioned in another thread there is peer pressure that provides many middle school and high school females with a disincentive to continue in chess.

You could also look at the raw numbers of players of each gender. By the time the senior year of high school is reached, it looks like more than 99% of the players are male. Judit Polgar’s stint among the top GMs may account for that remaining 1%. One Abby Marshall may account for about 1% of the top players at that age.

Man, enough women kicked my butt over the board for me not to believe that men are naturally stronger than women in chess! All seriousness aside, I no longer play tourney chess, but my big claim to fame is that I have lost to a past, a present, and a future US Woman’s Champion in my heyday (not all USCF tourneys, some NY Chess League stuff)…

Which leads to an interesting story.  At a get-to-know-you company meeting  a few years back the CEO of the company went around the table, asking everyone their interests as an icebreaker. When I said chess, he engaged me in a conversation. Doing some quick calculation, i noticed some attractive women at the table, so i decided to "brag" about the aforementioned fact of my tournament career, losing to all those woman's champions,  hoping indeed to "hit" on one of these women (excuse the political incorrectness, but by now this story is way beyond that point, no?).  Anyway, all i got was a conversation out of one lady at the coffee intermission, but I think that, though i played the opening well, i think i was lost by mid-game!

Sorry for the humorous interlude to this question. By the way, out of 5 games played against these woman's champions, i had 3 losses and 2 draws. All good games. I ain't ashamed.

 Actually, i think the reason for women not getting to the top is mostly societal, but there is probably a little physical, brainological (how's that for a new word) stuff going on there too.  Anyway, there's probably no way to separate the sociological, physical, and psychological aspects anyway.

Time and temperature, as they say in chemical engineering. Men work longer and harder at the game and therefore get better results. That women don’t work as long or as hard at chess just goes to show how much smarter they are.