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In Star Trek, nearly all the adult Borg we see appear to be male. While there might be some reason out of universe for this, in universe this doesn't make much sense. When a culture is assimilated all members of the population not killed in the attack are injected with nanites and sent to the assimilation chamber; men, women and children.

There have been a few exceptions on the shows and First Contact (most notably Seven and the Queen), but by and large this is how 98% of the Borg drones we see appear:

Borg from First Contact Borg from Unimatrix Zero

Does the Queen hoard all the female drones somewhere, or are they more valuable in some way that keeps them from being used as shock troops and front line workers? Or is there some other in universe explanation for why female drones are so rarely seen?

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    Well even in insect colonies, traditionally drones are exclusively male. As to why the Borg appear to have adopted a similar structure, I have no clue. Good question. :)
    – Gabe Willard
    May 10, 2012 at 21:04
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    @GabeWillard actually drones in an ant colony are almost exclusively female.
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    May 10, 2012 at 21:09
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    @Pureferret These larger colonies consist mostly of sterile wingless females forming castes of "workers", "soldiers", or other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens". That's not what the article you linked to says.
    – Gabe Willard
    May 10, 2012 at 21:12
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    @GabeWillard, read more of the article: Ant colonies can be long-lived. The queens can live for up to 30 years, and workers live from 1 to 3 years. Males, however, are more transitory, and survive only a few weeks. On further researching the males are drones, the workers (outnumbering the drones by the thousands) are female. My apologies.
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    May 10, 2012 at 21:21
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    @Pureferret It's fine. We're all here to learn. :)
    – Gabe Willard
    May 10, 2012 at 21:24

1 Answer 1

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"Interesting, isn't it? Not a he, not a she, not like anything you've ever seen before." - Q to Captain Jean-Luc Picard (TNG: "Q Who")

Technically speaking no Borg drone has a gender, this may be what makes it difficult to distinguish the former genders of the drones, but there are more drones that were once female than you think:

enter image description hereenter image description hereenter image description here

I could continue.

The middle one appears male but was played by an actress called Lynn Slater. This highlights the issue in trying to determine the gender of a Borg.

Regardless, after assimilation any physiological difference between the two genders would be nullified by the action of nanobots and implants equalling any differences in speed, strength endurance etc.

So yes, drones are de-sexed, with some overt sexual characteristics showing (face shapes etc) but other than that they are genderless.

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    Interesting that your examples are all pre-First Contact. Any from the First Contact or Voyager era Borg?
    – Xantec
    May 10, 2012 at 23:12
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    @Xantec: Here and here. From the Voyager era.
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    May 11, 2012 at 8:28
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    Your answer would be better if you distinguished sex from gender. Borg don't do gender (other than the role of Queen), but this is a different question than what the biological sex of the assimilated species are (i.e. were the drone desexed?).
    – Lexible
    Dec 2, 2018 at 20:19

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