[game_edu] Implications of students going into a male-dominated industry?

[Anthony Hart-Jones]

On 20/09/11 10:08, Steven Yau wrote:

> Thank god. I thought I was the only one thinking this. We shouldn't

> shut the door on diversity but at the same time, we shouldn't

> encourage to the point on bordering on quotas for a

> male/female/diversity ratio.

   Discussing this with my wife, a gamer, we came to the conclusion that 
the focus on equality of opportunity is the right one.  She grew up with 
two older brothers, so she was exposed to games and was comfortable with 
playing them.  It was only as a gamer that she saw the number of other 
women who play; the gamer girls are almost invisible from the outside.
   The answer may be more about public-awareness than bribery; instead 
of tossing money at grants and bursaries to encourage women into the 
STEM subjects, that same money may be better used to raise the profile 
of women who already do the jobs.  Yes, women are a minority (and will 
continue to be, I feel) in this industry, but look at the examples we 
already have.

   Off the top of my head...

  - Roberta Williams helped found Sierra, one of the big 
developer-publishers.
  - Brenda Brathwaite of Wizardry fame.
  - Lori Ann Cole, who worked on the Quest For Glory series.
  - Robin Hunicke, producer for thatgamecompany.

   There are many more, but they seem to be almost invisible to 
prospective game-developers.  I am torn on whether Shelley Mazzanoble is 
good or bad example, but her book 'Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress' 
(in which she successfully gets a group of non-gamer women to play 
Dungeons and Dragons) makes for interesting reading...


>> On the, in my view, more legitimate concern of discrimination within the

>> workplace, I think it may be over-stated but it certainly does exist.

>> Basically, people are stupid. In my experience I have, very occassionally,

>> seen improper interactions between men and women in the workplace. Often, as

>> Anthony Hart-Jones has just recently said, the matter can be mostly

>> innocuous. In other cases, it can be hurtful or threatening, and I have seen

>> this from both men and women. In these cases I believe the legislation

>> already exists in most countries, and it is important for employers to

>> enforce anti-harassment laws.

   In theory, a perfect answer.  In practice though...

   In a situation where a woman feels the need to prove herself and gain 
acceptance, complaining about the actions of her co-workers is not going 
to endear her to anyone.  Yes, she has the right to do so, but you can 
bet it would count against her.  No matter how legitimate her complaint, 
it would make the other men more fearful around her.  By protecting 
herself, she would have created a wall between herself and her male 
colleagues.

   Sadly, I think it is up to men to be more sensitive.  We need to 
think about what we do that could make a female colleague uncomfortable, 
even if it is just allowing other men to be boorish without calling them 
on it.  It is part of growing up and that is just what the industry is 
doing.


>> On a similar point, my experiences have led me to believe there are far more

>> common forms of discrimination within the industry, at least locally. The

>> most common form of discrimination I have seen is religious persecution.

>> There exists within our industry a strong intellectual elitism accompanied

>> by an anti-religious dogma. I've seen numerous developers viciously torn

>> down when it's been brought to the colleagues that they hold religious views

>> of any sort. Whiel this form of persecution is no more damaging than gender

>> discrimination, the fact that it is particularly vicious, overt and never

>> (in my knowledge of the cases I have witnessed) rebuked by authority figures

>> makes it far more concerning in my view.

   Now there is an interesting point.  I have never seen overt 
religious-discrimination, possibly because the last studio I worked for 
had a good mix (at least one non-lapsed Catholic, a Jehovah's Witness, 
an Orthodox Jew and a Neopagan that I knew of), but there certainly was 
a sense of intellectual superiority from the openly-atheist staff.
   In many ways, the pervasive anti-religious feeling is more akin to 
homophobia in the situations where I have seen them expressed.  People 
still say things without thinking - 'that is so gay' or 'stop being such 
a poof' - without any real malice.  In the same way, they laugh at 
articles of faith which contradict their own thinking without 
consciously aiming to mock those around them who believe.