5 Myths About Women In Gaming
1. Things Aren't Going To Change
"What we’re finally seeing is that it became so egregious that now companies are starting to wake up and say, ‘We need to stop this. This has got to change’.”
Miss Edwards has faith, along with other loud voices in the industry like the Entertainment Software Assocation head Michael Gallagher. Both have spoken out and said that they truly believe that the industry is shifting towards becoming a more inclusive, diverse environment.
That's not at all to say that things are good. As of 2014, females only comprised about 22% of video game developers - which was exciting news at the time, as it had doubled since 2009. But when 50% of the industry's consumers represents only 22% of its producers, it becomes more clear why the industry is having so many issues with topics like sexism, and why GamerGate became a thing.
Some of the silver lining can be found in the low-but-still-impressive numbers, however. In 2014 the University of Southern California's Media and Games Division boasted more graduating females than males. Of the 180 institutions of the Higher Education Video Game Alliance, approximately 1/3 of the enrollees for gaming programs are females, much higher than the percentage of female engineering students at most other universities.
At the beginning of 2015, Intel invested $300 million towards building female diversity in their gaming division in the aftermath of GamerGate. The company hopes to increase their population of female and minority developers over five years by 14%.
So while things are not remotely at the level that they should be, they are without a doubt on the upswing.
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How do you feel about the gaming industry's attitude towards women? Let us know in the comments.