From Jean's perspective there wouldn't be any reason why women can't compete in billiards. But from a social and math perspective there are many reasons why women in general and any particular woman can't compete.
First the social, women are treated differently no matter how much we pretend otherwise. They are coddled and treated gingerly. If you're a boy you are taught to treat women differently and naturally, hormonally, you treat women differently. So women in the pool room are unlikely to be treated like one of the guys. The way guys bark at each other, they way they match up, they way they swagger, the jokes they trade, all this is different when a woman is involved. If SVB were going to match up with a top woman player would he ever send a text saying he was going to "destroy with equine intercourse" her the way he said it when talking about Mike Dechaine? I doubt it. Then comes the social stigma that men feel competing with women, no guy wants to be the one who lost to a woman, and the better player they are the more it stings.
Even today when there are more women in the game it's still a social knock when a guy loses to a woman. And women who play well are still described as playing good for a girl. They are not yet treated as simply players. And partly this is because there are still segregated tournaments.
Now the numbers. Well this one is easy, the percentage of women who play competitively is very small compared to the men. And when I say competitively I mean going out every night looking for tournaments and hunting action. There are very few women who do that. So the odds are very slim that women as a group or any individual woman would be able to dominate in a group of equally skilled men. The fact is that the men vastly outnumber the women and as such they have a lot more competitive (and thus learning) opportunities. Mass makes class and the women don't have the numbers. IF women played pool in equal numbers as men then AND they didn't face social discrimination THEN they would be about equally represented in the top ranks of all players in my opinion.
But now, even now in 2013, a really great woman player is still an oddity. They are still well in the minority.
Jean Balukas was the greatest woman player of her era but she wasn't close to being the greatest player of her era. When she stepped into a men's event then she became one of the field only and every player she faced was near to or better than her speed. So it would be tough for ANY player to dominate those fields and the odds that a woman would have the chops to be as good as Mike Sigel are simply too great. Now if Jean had been treated like Mike Sigel then it's entirely possible that she might have developed into the same caliber of player but I am 100% sure that she was not treated that way.
And really not much has changed with the exception that the general speed of the women players is much stronger now. Kelly Fisher beats the ten ball ghost on tight equipment. That's world class speed no matter what genitalia the player has. But can she bring that when the heat is coming back at her? Can she make it through a field of killers who are all just as good or better than she is? Well, probably not without massive experience against that type of competition. That IS the next level and unfortunately because she is a woman, and because there are still tournaments that are women only, she has little opportunity to test herself and go for it. And if she does go ahead and enter the few tournaments that allow women then she is knocked for beating the men who aren't allowed to play in women's events. And that argument does have some merit EXCEPT for the fact that any C-player can also enter any open Pro event but no pro can enter a C-player tournament.
In other words the lesser player can ALWAYS go up in class and try it. And in effect when the women have a league of their own they are acknowledging that they are as a group weaker than the men. Which is fine but we have to realize that as long as it exists then women will continue to face the double standard that they face. And as long as that is the case then in my opinion women will have a really hard time proving Jean right. And I agree with Jean, there seems to be no physical reason why women can't play as well as the men.
is waaaaaaaaaay different. Compare it to car racing and Danica. Their time will come. Give em a little more. And if your decisions are made from watching Tunica, well the Gals usually play on equipment with the pocket size increased for many reasons. Pace of play??....watch Vivian Villareal play or Janette Lee, they get around the table quite nicely. Not everyone plays at the pace of Mika/Earl/Rodney or even myself when I get rollin'. Since the gals haven't played side by side, with the men....in an event like this for over twenty years, its refreshing and enjoyable to see again. Their games will get better/quicker the more they are around the men. We're all in the same POOL.