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Around here, Junkyard is the most popular game with women. I think they like the humor. There's also a couple female voices in the audio.
I think it also helps that it has two very straightforward things to shoot at - the crane and the dog.
I ran into my friend Jen last night. She really like X-Men.
At the SF Pinball league we have around six women out of 30 total. That's the typical ratio I see at shows and at my tournaments.
Quoted from Rick432:I've ALWAYS felt MAGIC: THE GATHERING would be a brilliant theme because it cuts across SO many demographics, including genders and ages, in a crowd that spends money on strategic entertainment, appreciates art, spends time anchored to common physical locations (imagine a M:tG pin on location at a game store!), and have probably never played a real pin, though are likely tech savvy!
It would probably do well in comic book stores. A key driver of Magic, however, is the competitive aspect. More specifically, it's man-vs-man, not man-vs-machine. For the same reason, I don't expect a new Street Fighter themed pin would be particularly popular with the fighting game crowd, even if it was well-designed, unlike the old Gottlieb game.
Quoted from navajas:At no time during the entire day were adult males the majority of occupancy.
That's how it was at pacific pinball museum on Sunday.
That's how it is almost all of the time at Playland not at the Beach. It's mostly moms and kids.
Quoted from ChadTower:But are they the ones playing pinball? It's pretty easy to think the arcade full of kids means kids are playing pinball when they are really cramming fistfuls of tokens into redemption machines.
There's no redemption games at PPM. They have a few vintage coin-ops and shuffle bowlers, though.
Playland has several carnival games where kids can earn tickets towards prizes. They are a lot more popular than the pinballs. Kids can also earn tickets playing pinball, and generally speaking it's a lot easier to earn a lot of tickets on the pinball games. A few kids usually figure this out and then they play nothing but pinball after that.
Playland is a little different from a typical arcade. It's pay one price and everything (including the carnival games) is on free play. An attendant gives the kids the tickets (no ticket dispensers on the machines). If I'm working, I hold mini contests where I'll play one-handed and they get extra tickets if they can beat me. Or if a kid is really struggling, but finally makes a score goal, I'll give him/her a few extra tickets.
Quoted from navajas:Much like Chad's assertion that women aren't playing pinball where women never go, you aren't now going to tell me that kids aren't interested or are intrinsically incapable of such because they only play on weekends?
There are no coins or tokens at the SPBM. You pay either for one visit, or a day long pass. Everything is set on free play after that.
I'm not telling you anything, just what I've observed.
I see women playing pinball in bars fairly often, but it totally depends on the bar. Hipster bars are where I see them most. Still, the guys tend to outnumber the girls by 3 to 1 on a good day.
PPM and Playland tend to draw families, so I see a lot more women and kids. Half their business comes from birthday parties (they have a full kitchen).
PPM is open six days a week. Kids could go there after school but I don't think they do. I've been there many times at 4pm and have never seen any.
Quoted from ChadTower:The Teenage metalheads I know don't enjoy ACDC and Metallica. They can't be bothered with grandpa's music.
SAD BUT TRUUUUE.
I would say Metallica is mostly the 30+ crowd and male.
Quoted from Fixie:I stated this before in other threads but I still think the key to grow interest in pinball is to get competitions on TV somewhere. Even a half hour program in the middle of the night on some obscure cable channel will help spur a resurrgence. No one ever heard of X-Games 20 years ago but now every neighborhood has a bike ramp in somebody's yard. Anybody notice the spike in prices after the meager exposure of pins on shows like American Pickers, American Restoration, and Pawn Stars ? It's not a coincidence IMHO. Imagine the spike in the price of a pin if it were to be shown being played in some kind of competition on a national cable channel. Don't underestimate the power of the tube. It would have more effect than any new game design. People see it being done on TV and they'll want to try it themselves.
I agree. I've given this a lot of thought, actually. I may run what I think may be tv friendly format this summer at a tournament and post the matches to see what people think.
Speaking of kids, a couple years ago I did a 'how to play pinball' seminar for some high school kids.
This high school is one of the most expensive in the area (20k/yr). Part of their curriculum is that for each semester, a topic is chosen and then they immerse themselves in it. The idea is to get kids to "dig into" a topic, because our culture and learning tend to be so skin deep these days.
The teacher is a friend of a friend who is an op, so the topic wound up being pinball.
He and a couple other ops supplied games. One op covered history, another covered basic mechanical stuff and I did the how to play seminar.
In the captive audience environment, the kids got really into the games. They would even eat lunch in the classroom with the games to play more and had to be kicked out when the next class needed to start. There were only 16 kids in the class so I decided to organize a round robin tournament that they could play out through their remaining sessions.
I know some people have loaned games to their kids' school. Potential "ins" are fund raisers, science experiments (lots of possibilities with math and physics), and single dad trying to meet a hot teacher. 
pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35597103@N08/5494711941/in/set-72157626064442227/
Quoted from Fixie:I forgot to mention: Have the pro commentator throw in his "how to" tip of the week to improve your game. I'll bet the next time the viewer stumbles across a pin , he/she will definitely want to try it out.
I have a lot of ideas like that.
Another one is "Professor Pinball" does a quick "Believe it or not?" fun fact on pinball, or points out some interesting innovation on a game.
A "repair of the week" (many newbies aren't even aware that repairing and resto are things they can learn if they want to)
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Oakland, CA