Yeah I feel like it's mostly a cultural thing. In the past, women were discouraged (and at a certain point not allowed) from playing chess, so it's always been a male dominated hobby

In general, women tend to be reluctant to get into male dominated interests and occupations when there isn't a welcoming, large enough space for them (e.g. depending on gender roles and expectations, some countries have mostly male doctors, some have an equal amount of male/female doctors, and some have mostly female doctors). So there isn't exactly a large enough pool of women who care enough to really get into chess and make achievements in it. it's also just, kind of a boring hobby to get into imo