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

[Maria Droujkova]

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 9:31 PM, Nathan Runge <contact at nathanrunge.com>wrote:


>

>

> Maria Droujkova wrote:

>

>> This is how the harm of the imbalance happens. A girl visits a game dev

>> studio, or looks at a photo or a list of employees, sees no females, and

>> concludes "I don't see anyone like me there, so I will not do it."

>>

>

> On the topic of your particular example, I am hoping that most interested

> in a career in games would not be quite so weak-willed as that

>


This made me wince.

Yes, the most interested 1-2% will engage in their chosen endeavor even if
they have to do it illegally, barefoot in the snow, starving, and so on and
so forth.

Upon seeing no women in a company, most girls (as young as 12 or 13) and
young women conclude they won't be able to procreate if they choose to join
- for multiple reasons. The main reason being the company is likely to be
clueless about motherhood.

This choice (a job vs. a family) is a bit too tragic and heroic to make
during peaceful times. Moreover, women tend to be more flexible in job
choices than men, overall, and less likely to be absolutely sure they will
only be happy in this one chosen endeavor. I don't think people who decide
to avoid strong anguish, by following an alternative they like just fine,
are necessarily weak-willed.

There are pretty harsh numbers on what, say, the process of getting a STEM
PhD does to a female's chances of having kids. I have not seen numbers about
game dev or, say, being a truck driver, but the perceptions are there. Just
something to keep in mind about the drama of the social forces acting in the
situation.

MariaD
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20110920/5c4bb0ec/attachment.htm>