[Stryker577]

After playing through the W2 on many different occasions and seeing many videos of the W1 being played, I found that there was an absence of female Witchers. Not only were there none in either game, but I do not remember any being mentioned. So, I am curious, is there such thing as a female Witcher? If so why were they not then integrated into the game?

[lubo 1654]

By nature men are physically superior to women so I cannot see any girl passing the trials and training. There is ofcourse Ciri but she was never a full grown witcher. She was only beginning her training in the books and nobody can say if she would survive.

[M4xw0lf]

Little girl in TW2: "Can gurls become witchas toooo?"
Just crossed my mind

[Demut]

Too bad Geralt never replies to those kids or else this question would have been answered :>

But hey, at least they can become witches

[Random drowner]

lubo 1654 said:

By nature men are physically superior to women so I cannot see any girl passing the trials and training. There is ofcourse Ciri but she was never a full grown witcher. She was only beginning her training in the books and nobody can say if she would survive. ›››

While men generally are stronger than woman in their ability to exert force "explosively" (meaning they can lift more and run faster) Women are generally constitutionally stronger, as in being more resistant to fatigue, illness and so on.

[Wichat]

lubo 1654 said:

By nature men are physically superior to women so I cannot see any girl passing the trials and training. There is ofcourse Ciri but she was never a full grown witcher. She was only beginning her training in the books and nobody can say if she would survive. ›››

I don't think this the really reason why Sapkowski had in is head. There's more references in the books about fertility than muscles.

[Demut]

Random drowner said:

While men generally are stronger than woman in their ability to exert force "explosively" (meaning they can lift more and run faster) Women are generally constitutionally stronger, as in being more resistant to fatigue, illness and so on.

Is that so? I’ve never heard that claim before. And after all, I can’t think of any sport where women surpass men (or even come close). That includes those that mainly rely on endurance such as marathons.

[Stryker577]

Demut said:

Is that so? I’ve never heard that claim before. And after all, I can’t think of any sport where women surpass men (or even come close). That includes those that mainly rely on endurance such as marathons. ›››

Beach volleyball?

[Costin Moroianu]

Wichat said:

I don't think this the really reason why Sapkowski had in is head. There's more references in the books about fertility than muscles. ›››

Well male witchers also have fertility problems. They are sterile. I know what Triss said in the books about Ciri and the trials, but I don't think that in itself would prevent a woman from becoming a witcher.

[JimTheGreat]

Stryker577 said:

Beach volleyball? ›››

Let's be serious,who watches beach volleybal for the actual sport?It's just most popular when women play for obvious reasons.

[227]

From what I hear about childbirth, the trial of the grasses would be nothing.

Just saying.

[Vandergrift]

@227
Well is that 3 out of 10 survive the trial and sum up training changes and trial i believe it is even worse. So you judge what is better.

Changes and trial are designed with man in mind, so changing female it will even increase death rate even worse, much worse.

Random drowner said:

While men generally are stronger than woman in their ability to exert force "explosively" (meaning they can lift more and run faster) Women are generally constitutionally stronger, as in being more resistant to fatigue, illness and so on. ›››

Well fighting is explosive brutal and short. In prolonged battles weaker will be exhausted faster anyway.
And witchers are immune anyway.

[Demut]

Stryker577 said:

Beach volleyball?

Hrm. Not sure if serious.

[Wut the Melon]

I think it's just plain old sexism. The Witcher universe is set in a Medieval-ish setting, meaning that for the most part the men consider themselves way more important than the women. There won't be a whole lot of female knights, and what with none of the witchers knowing anything about the ...particular difficulties in the upbringing of young girls (as mentioned in the books), I guess it's not all that surprising there are no female witchers.

EDIT: perhaps 'sexism' is indeed a badly chosen term, and Ward Dragon has a fairly plausible explanation. I meant to say that I don't think physiology would be as important as the simple fact that a witcher, as with knights in the medieval ages or, say, the military today, it is/was generally thought of as something for men, not for women. And therefore the witchers themselves, who are after all also people living in that society, wouldn't have thought of training female witchers.

I'm not calling anyone racist/sexist, but I think that in this aspect witchers are affected by the societal 'norm' just as much as anyone. They wouldn't have said that girls CAN'T become witchers, but it wouldn't fit in with their tradition.

[Ward Dragon]

From the books it sounds like Witchers are mainly little orphan boys that nobody wanted to take care of, so they get shipped off to undergo strenuous training and experiments that are very likely to kill them, then if they actually survive they get to spend the rest of their lives fighting monsters for a pittance while everyone else hates them.

I don't really think the lack of girl Witchers is sexism, at least not in the way that most people are using the term. I think it's more likely that society had more use for orphan girls (servants, cooks, etc.) whereas boys would be more expensive to train and keep out of trouble, so they threw the boys away by shipping them off to become Witchers (or more likely to die during training).

[Guy N'wah]

Ward Dragon said:

From the books it sounds like Witchers are mainly little orphan boys that nobody wanted to take care of, so they get shipped off to undergo strenuous training and experiments that are very likely to kill them, then if they actually survive they get to spend the rest of their lives fighting monsters for a pittance while everyone else hates them.

I don't really think the lack of girl Witchers is sexism, at least not in the way that most people are using the term. I think it's more likely that society had more use for orphan girls (servants, cooks, etc.) whereas boys would be more expensive to train and keep out of trouble, so they threw the boys away by shipping them off to become Witchers (or more likely to die during training). ›››

IRL, boys and girls often would be placed in foster homes, or institutions serving as foster homes. This would be done for boys as young as 7 years old. You're right; girls, because they were more employable as servants, had a greater range of opportunity. A highly presentable orphan girl might even make it to court as a lady-in-waiting and have her choice of suitors from the ambitious young men there.

If there were Witcher schools IRL, they probably would have been treated with the same hatred we see in the books and games. The Church was responsible for the care of orphans, and a school that took in orphan boys for dangerous training without their approval, which certainly would not have been granted, would be the object of official scorn, slander, and pogroms.

[Wichat]

Costin Moroianu said:

Well male witchers also have fertility problems. They are sterile. I know what Triss said in the books about Ciri and the trials, but I don't think that in itself would prevent a woman from becoming a witcher. ›››

No, but in a time where Meliteke and Maternity and Eternity are such a conditioning factor, it would be easy to understand a "protection" of fertility in women.

[Sirnaq]

Stryker577 said:

After playing through the W2 on many different occasions and seeing many videos of the W1 being played, I found that there was an absence of female Witchers. Not only were there none in either game, but I do not remember any being mentioned. So, I am curious, is there such thing as a female Witcher? If so why were they not then integrated into the game? ›››

Nope there is not. Only female that get witcher training was Ciri, she is not mutant and can't cast signs.

[Guy N'wah]

Wichat said:

No, but in a time where Meliteke and Maternity and Eternity are such a conditioning factor, it would be easy to understand a "protection" of fertility in women. ›››

Ciri's also special because of Ithlinne's Prophecy. So her fertility has plot armor.

The sorceresses are forced to choose, not as a matter of physiological impossibility, but as a decision forced upon them by the mistress of the Academy, to give up maternity as a cost of pursuing magical power.

[wisielec]

Simple reason: males have stronger organisms, training and trail of grassess are so rigorous that placing a little girl in witcher school would be a sadistic experiment (when Ciri is trained by Geralt and his pack she is treated with care they never experienced as boys). I recon not many would survive, even if some would succeed, training one in "100" would be a waste of time. There wouldnt be enough witchers to do their job.