Female Representation in the Gaming World

The relationship between female gamers and the gaming industry has always been an unstable one. Compared to many years ago, the number of female gamers and their participation in it has changed substantially. Still, the idea of females having an active role in the gaming industry has not struck a chord with everyone.

The Entertainment Software Association publishes “Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry” yearly, which gives different statistics about the industry and the people involved in it. The one published in 2014 found that 48% of gamers are female, while the other 52% are male. The amazing thing about this is that female gamers 18 and older hold a bigger share in the industry than compared to boys 18 and younger. Throughout the years, the number of female gamers has continued to increase. In only a year the number of female gamers went from 45% to 48%. In 2008, the female gamers only made up 38% of the industry. As you can see, women’s participation in the gaming world has lessened the idea that video games are a man’s world.

Even though the number of female and male gamers is almost equal, female representation is still missing, especially in the workplace. As seen in Leah Burrows article, “Women Remain Outsiders in Video Game Industry”, found in the Boston Globe, only 11% of game designers are women, and only 3% of programmers are women. Just like in many other fields of work even the pay between men and women is different. Women employees seem to be making much less than their male counterparts. On average, male programmers make 10% more than women, male designers make 12% more, and male artists/ animators make 33%.  It seems like the video game workplace is not always a welcoming one to female workers either. As stated by Filamena Young, who is a game designer and co-owner of Machine Age Productions, in the Boston Globe article , the work environment of video game designers is unsafe for women to be involved in. She says that she’s even been groped.

You can imagine the kinds of female characters created by these men’s “boys locker mentalities”, as Leah Burrows describes it. Next blog, I will focus on the kinds of female characters designed and see if those characters are a reflection of the mindset of men creating them.            

Is Sexism Present?

Many people would argue that video games have a positive effect on the player. Some examples include making a player more creative or helping a player make decisions both quickly and strategically. If this is the case, do video games have the ability to have a negative effect on the player? The obvious argument would be related to violence, so I chose to focus on a different issue, sexism. I chose this issue for two reasons. One reason is that one of my favorite things to write about is humanity and what causes an individual to think or act in a certain way. Another reason is that this issue has been gaining popularity in recent times, both within the video game industry and outside of it.

The kind of news that I will provide in this blog are both news articles and studies. I will be using news articles to show how the media tackles this issue and to show any bias that might be present. An example of this is Time Magazine’s article "What is #GamerGate and Why Are Women Being Threatened About Video Games?" I will talk more about this article in future blogs, but this article talks about female writers, critics, and even video game developers and programmers who have been harassed and threatened by gamers for an assortment of reasons. I will use studies to show whether or not video games lead to sexist tendencies or if it depends on certain individuals.

My prediction or hypothesis is that video games do not create sexist thoughts. I think that there will be many cases where sexism in video games is present, but I don’t think that it will result in gamers developing sexist beliefs or thoughts. I’m predicting that there are people who play video games and are sexist, but these people were already sexist and they find certain elements in games to fuel these thoughts.         

Introduction

          The topic that I have chosen to write a blog about is if sexism in video games really exists. The reason I chose this topic is because it is an issue that is widely debated, especially in today’s day and age. There are many arguments that say that violent video games have the ability to bring out people’s violent behavior, and make them carry out violent acts in real life. If this is true, can it be said that video games can also create sexist mindsets that can result in actual violence against women.

          The point of this blog is to find out if sexism is really present in video games. I want to try to find out if this is the case or not and if so, does this cause harmful acts against women in reality. I also want to uncover if the men who are sexist have sexist tendencies before playing games, or if it is the games that cause them to think that way. I also want to discern why people make this argument if it turns out that video games do not create sexist mindsets.