Following on this thing about differences in repetoires. These are my impressions and I admit they are just impressions. There are a number of male singers who'se repetoires appear to consist almost entirely of sea shanties with a few sea songs thrown in. You don't tend to get women with that sort of rep. There are a lot of comedy songs for women to sing, and they are often ridiculing or getting the better of men. A lot of the songs for men are active songs dealing with the work that they do. Women often sing (re-active) songs about dealing with the consequences of the aftermath of mens decisions, either having been used, left behind while he goes to fight or work or been transported. Men tend to sing fewer ballads than women. Please note, just because a song is a ballad does not mean it is romantic!

On the balance of participation, it depends what sort of a place it is and if it's a singaround or a tune session. Tune sessions, especially the "irish" type do seem to me to be mostly men, especially when they are held in dingy, smoky tap rooms of pubs. Singarounds seem mostly to be about equal men & women.