Well, today’s theme is one of those polemics, which always ends up being biased, many people say “it’s not like that” and a lot is said and little is done. Let’s talk about women in gaming.
You can even tell me that the theme is in fashion. What is being in fashion? If you are going to denounce and fight for our space, then you are, but there is much more talk than action in this field. After all, most of the times where events and actions with women who work in the gaming market happen… On Women’s Day. And the worst: always to talk about “what it’s like to be a woman and work in the area”, and not to attest to our technical capacity on a certain subject, as happens with men.
Plot twist: women play and make games.
It seems like something new, but in 2014 The Guardian was already saying that women represented 52% of gamers. Among game developers, Statista shows that women are only 24% of the industry, and yet it is the biggest growth in the story. Not that it was much more like this before – it was always in the 20s and something per cent.
There is still a lot of thought of thinking that women don’t play, or that they only play certain types of games. Let me tell you something: women play all kinds of games. There is no such thing as a woman only playing a certain type of game – as with men, women also have their own preference.
In the field of industry, however, there is a lot of this of thinking that women occupy only certain positions, usually administrative. And when we take it to participation in events, the thing is even worse. Women are always called to… Women’s boards in games. There are very few cases where a woman is called because she is good at what she does and has a lot to add. In most cases we are used as tokens for companies/events to be able to say “look, we are inclusive, we even have women”. I don’t even need to say how bad this is, do I?
Seeing this need to create a support network, companies and groups have gained strength to demonstrate our value. I myself participated in an event on Facebook Brazil about women in gaming, and even ended up in the global communication of the event.
But what is having women in games?
A lot of people think it’s just a stamp, a company statement saying it’s open to women. It is effectively creating a work environment where women are valued for their skills and welcomed in situations where their work is questioned or she is the target of comments or attitudes that are inconsistent with her profession.
Starting with your work environment. How many women work on it? We look at companies, at events, and it’s always that screaming thing about being a man, especially in business positions. For women there are usually art, marketing/communications and administrative jobs, which is ridiculous when you think about how many competent women we have in other roles as well – especially in leadership and management roles.
So let’s go to your network: how many women do you know who are in the industry? How many people have you referred to the work, endorsed a project or trusted a partnership along your trajectory? How many times have you supported someone who was navigating this industry?
I’ve been in this industry for 9 years, and I’ve been through some very unpleasant situations, and in all of them I made my voice heard, but many friends didn’t have the same chance, some of them suffered moral and sexual harassment. I’ve heard “I honestly don’t know how you manage to stay in this market”, and that left me torn between sadness and the motivation to keep making women heard.
How can companies help with this issue?
To start with, having a posture that is not sexist and does not harm the victim.
In mid-October 2020, XBox Brazil fired the presenter Isadora Basille because of threats she had been suffering since the day she was announced as the person in charge of the communication. That’s exactly what you read: it was decided to punish the victim rather than work hard on the community and educate an audience that has a bad track record. Black Dragons did just the opposite: one of its athletes made extremely sexist comments after a defeat and the company dismissed the employee and made a statement explaining about it.
Not only in games, but in life, men play a super important role in this fight. How? Very easy: creating an environment where women feel welcomed and respected, where they have a voice and are as considered as men. In addition, men can also denounce and correct sexist behavior coming from other colleagues, thus educating the whole. It’s small actions every day that generate big changes, inside and outside companies.
We are in 2021, experiencing a pandemic, and even so we have to come and ask for the basics: respect and education. We are here, every day, struggling to show that we are present, that we are competent and that we can have a greater share in this mostly male market – not because we are women, as many people may think, but because we are very capable.
