From the Outside Looking in- A perspective on Girls in Gaming

Technology has been seen as a male dominated field for a long time. There is a plethora of
research indicating that programming and gaming professions are dominated by a boys-only
mentality which excludes women. A discussion on gender equity in technology would not be
complete without mention of the Gamergate movement. A movement which has brought to the
surface much of what women in the industry have been silent about for much too long. Female
gaming critics being attacked for
sharing their views and reporting on
bias and prejudice in the industry. The
drama led by nameless internet trolls
and the particular scale of violence
(posting nude images, slander and
defamation) have led multiple female
journalist/game critics to leave the
field and some their homes in fear of
their personal safety. Extreme threats
such as the ones seen here are
indicative of the extremity of the situation. While it is true the number of people who are part of
the Gamergate movement are a relatively small minority we can infer that this scandal will likely
deter even more women from choosing this career path. A career which massively under
represents and misrepresents females, continues to churn out material that is bigoted and even
violent against women. Grand Theft Auto, a game which is massively played by kids under the
age of 17 allows them to solicit services of a virtual prostitute and then kill her. According to a
2009 Gaming Diversity study, only 14 percent of all characters in video games are women, and
only 10 percent are playable characters in all games. This again, is due to the social perception
of women in video games.
Gamasutra produced brilliant infographics which highlighted the fact (amongst other things) that
in some aspects of the industry women are paid up to $20,000 less for the same job. These are
disturbing findings.
As I have been a long time follower of such movements as blackgirls code and Girls who
code in my own teaching I make an extra effort to draw in girls into programming and gaming
clubs (eg. minecraft). I personally believe that the ICT teachers in schools have been historically
men but gradually this is changing. I believe this change will have an impact on gender equity in
the tech fields in the long run. I am a coding advocate and have run programming courses
where only three out of 15 middle school kids were female. I err on the side of not giving girls
enough explicit instruction and expecting them to solve their problems independently and
interact with the boys as equals. I give them too much positive attention for just being there
which likely ostracizes them further. I dont take into account that they are generally more
reluctant than the boys at asking a boys they do not know well for help. I spend more time with
the girls trying to motivate them than I need to with the boys who seem to be confident in this
area. One of the countries I worked in was in South America and has very cultural ingrained
notions of male and female roles. For example, suggesting that girls could play all sports not
just field hockey was unheard of so you can imagine the that suggesting girls aspire to thrive in

STEM subjects was considered even more outlandish. These attitudes and values are difficult to
change and are embedded in our education system and in the individual cultures in which we
teach. We need to make a concerted effort not to raise strong empowered women that know
and understand their value (and potential value) in a very male dominated tech culture.
Some Good Resources for teachers:
Is Gaming a Boy's Club?

Women, Video Games and Sexism- Lesson plans http://www.adl.org/educationoutreach/lesson-plans/c/is-gaming-a-boys-club.html?

referrer=https://www.google.co.tz/#.VXCcQNKqqko

Free Resources to start/teach/learn programming http://djangogirls.org/resources/

References
Cook, Kirstin. (2015). As retrieved from: http://www.stetson.edu/today/2015/03/salaries-sexismpose-challenges-for-women-gamers/
Dewey,Caitlin (Oct. 14, 2014).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergateyou-will-ever-need-to-read/
Ostrander, R. Equity in the Computer Classroom http://www.andrews.edu/~rjo/Articles/Equity
%20in%20Computer%20Classrooms.pdf
Keohane, D. (April 2015). http://pando.com/2015/04/02/girls-who-code-black-girls-code-andothers-are-growing-fast-making-a-real-difference/
Williams, D., Martins, N.,Consalvo M., and Ivory, J. (2009) The virtual census: representations
of gender, race and age in video. As retrieved from: DOI: 10.1177/1461444809105354

All course articles especially:

http://www.cio.com/article/30528/Careers_Why_IT_Hates_Women_and_the_Women_Who_Sta
y_Anyway_
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/Kay.pdf
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html