As my daughter loves mathematics, but about chess she has said: Chess is such an AGRESSIVE game. And so she doesn't want to play chess. Of course she knows the rules and knows several openings and I tax her on maybe 1500 online points. A question: Is this by her called AGRESSIVENESS the reason for many Ladies, that there are so less Ladies playing chess? What is your opinion?

yes

Yes, and the rising popularity of chess boxing.

What is "chess boxing"??? Do you mean bullet chess?

In fact, I think the number of female players is increasing, at least here in the U.S. When I first played in OTB tournaments, back before some of you were born, women players were extremely rare, but when I recently returned to tournament play after a very long absence noticed quite a few more young women playing--and some of them were quite strong.

I believe that this trend will be self-sustaining, since one of the thibgs that used to discourage young female players was the feeling that they were intruding in a boys-only world. That's certainly not the case anymore'

Interestingly, many experts have noticed that high-level female players tend to be more aggressive that their male counterparts. I don't know if this is an innate trait, or if it reflects the influence of Judit Polgar. by far the greatest female player in chess history, and a real chess assassin.

Hou Yifan is getting up there you know... 

Good point!

it's a turn-off, yes. solving puzzles is where it's at!

Um, no. Have you ever heard about Vera Menchik?

Yes I have. With all due respect to Ms Menchik, I don't think her resume remotely compares to Judit Polgar's. At her peak, Polgar was ranked among the top eight players in the world, and she has maintained a 2650-2725 rating range for 20 years. In one form of chess or another, she has defeated, among others,  Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Anand, Short, and Shirov. 

Hou Yifan is a very promising player, with at least one very fine result in a mixed gender event. For some reason, she seems to have taken a small step backwards this year, but she certainly has the potential for great achievement. But at this point, her resume also looks pretty thin compared to Polgar.

It exists. Here is a clip from the Chess Boxing World Championship (there may some advertisement before the clip starts)

To belabor the Menchik/Polgar point a little . . .

The site Chessmetric.com attempts to rate all players from all eras on a single scale, so that you can directly compare the "ratings" of, say, Tarrasch and Shirov. I wouldn't take their results as gospel, but the do cruch a lot of data in an attempt to compare players across time. Here are a few results:

Vera Menchik reached a peak of #52 on the world rankings in 1929. Her best single result was at the 1931 Hastings tournament, where she scored 3.5 out of 8 against 2634 rated opponents for a performance rating of 2582

Judit Polgar reached a peak of #5 on the May 2004 rating list. Her best single result was when she scored 7 out of 9 in Madrid 1994, against  2672 rated opponents for a performance rating of 2778

vera m. is grouped w/ thousands....polgar is a better chess player, and a level ahead of vera.....but two hundred points behind the really good G.M.s

 don't quite get that. Polgar has often been rated  over 2700 FIDE in her career and has been as high as #8 on the official FIDE rating list. No player in history has been rated 200 points higher than that, let alone  "the really good G.M.s"

yes chess is very aggressive and violent

Interesting point @widderstein.  My husband and I met over a casual chess game.  But over time, we became more and more competitive.  We have to use a chess clock when we play or the games get way to long.  We mostly don't play against each other any more because of the competitive nature.  Maybe women aren't as interested in the competition.

I don't accept arguments based on dubious systems like Elo or Chessmetrics as valid.

Vera Menchik had plus score vs champion Max Euwe in his best years.

OTOH, from true active champions (not counting retired ones Smyslov and Spassky), Judit Polgar has plus score only vs FIDE champion Kasimdzhanov and with rapid games included, the score is equal.

Vera Menchik was undisputed women champion with no opposition from 1927 until her death. Her total score in women's competitions was way more convicting than Lasker's, Capablanca's, Fischer's or Kasparov's among the men. Judit Polgar never acheived woman-WCC title - I know, she didn't try and maybe she would, but who knows? Judit has been perhaps the best woman chess player in the world these days, but her dominance above other women has never come close to Vera's.

See Judit's failure vs Nona Gaprindashvili:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1047562

This is something I wonder about too. And it might have to do with an evolutional concept, that men always want to struggle more to get more offspring.

If females always choose more talented men, then they will reproduce more often (one man could reproduce with multiple females in one day, and thus reproducing ALOT if he is very talented).

So evolutionairy-wise men will be more talented and also got a bigger need to be talented. 

This is just theory, but I think it can be true.

They also found out that men who paint produce more art than females.

In many species the male animals have bright colours to look cool for the female. We want to show how good we are, so please mate with us! :D

Recently, there have been more female players. No female player is listed in the Top 10 in the world (I don't think) perhaps there will be a female in the top 10 one day and inspire more females

Mmmh. Not sure why my previous link disappeared so here is a different one from Chessbase: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6156.

Scroll down to see video and documentary and further links about chessboxing ..

Chess doesn't have to be violent and aggressive. Some players prefer a more positional style.