Women in the Gaming and Technology Industry

By: Brianna Arias, Mckenzie Bing, Aidan Dunn, Brandon Lopez, & Quentin Nunez

The Numbers

84% of the executive positions in the gaming industry are held by men.

Only 24% of those are women who work in the same industry.

According to the Guardian, women working in the gaming industry in the U.K (which is only 45%) say that they feel like their gender is a limiting factor in the industry.

In 2020, 18% of video games that were released featured female characters.

33% of women said that they have experienced direct harassment or bullying because of their gender.

Only 5% of video games showcase a female protagonist, and when they are shown, they are often sexualized.

How Women are Sexualized in Video Games

Resident Evil Village released May 7, 2021 reveals how its consumers modded the lead female villain to be heavily sexualized

Women gamers sexualized outside of games

In 2017 it was reported that 41% of gamers are women by the 2018 Entertainment Software Association survey. While the rise of women in the gaming industry grows, comes more opportunities for women to be harassed online and in person. 36% of women who play online say they are treated with less respect than their male counterparts (Washington Post).

As of 2020, women only account for 41% of female gamers.

Not every female gamer reveals their gender because of the backlash they know they’ll face from male gamers. Many female usernames report, not only do they get made fun of but, “report receiving threatening or sexually explicit,” private messages more than male usernames. As more women enter into the gaming industry, society must learn to find women gamers equal to male gamers.

Women in Tech: “Diversity is always an asset”

“I think technical professions are unfortunately still seen as classic “male professions”. In order to get more girls interested in IT, it is necessary to start at an early age. Here I still see a lot of potential for improvement.” — Anke Sperger, internal sales representative at Axis Communications GmbH

Wage Gap

In the gaming industry men and women have different salaries. Men on average make a salary of $85,074 while women working the same position earn a salary of $72,882. While women are also making less they are also not a part of the executive teams. On average the developers of making games consist of 76% men and 22% women. Just like many other industries the gender pay gap finds its way into the tech/ gaming industry, which are male dominated.

Tech companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve conditions for female employees. Here’s why not much has changed — and what might actually work.

• (Gaming) — To help flex the bias against women in the gaming industry and women who enjoy playing video games, more of these ideas must be seen in the media for people to see them more. By using social action people can begin to share the discrimination that they’ve felt. Also game developers can use an economic approach, by opening up more advertising showing women in positions where they open the door to new consumers. This simultaneously is a force for change since it invites more people to participate in gaming.
• (Tech) — Teach women that they can go into the tech industry and have jobs that have been male dominant, this will help so they aren’t turned away from that career. Showing leaders in these roles also gives young women someone to look up to and know that they can succeed.

“When you see how the image of women in the Western world has developed over the last 100 years, I am confident that diversity will be a matter of course for future generations. We have come a long way today, but unfortunately, we have not yet reached 100% equality.” — Sperger