Gender Gaps in Video Games and the Gaming Industry The video game industry has been around since 1958 and is a rapidly growing media industry. However, this industry is viewed as male-dominant and mostly unwelcoming to women. The inequalities within schools, games, and the industry itself are painfully obvious yet not many people try to make a change. While reflecting gender-related tensions in the American culture at large, the issue of misogyny in the video game industry demonstrates that gender inequality has not ended in the United States. The inequality between genders starts within the very roots of the gaming industry which would be the schooling. The degrees that video game employees receive are underneath the field of computer-science.
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are males (Harwell). Despite the large scale of male employment, female employment has increased from 2005, increasing from 12% to 20%. However only 3% of those women are game developers, or programmers, and 11% are game designers. Nuukster’s (a gaming company) chief executive David Engel has gone through many female applications while hiring but almost all of them were from artist, zero from programmers (Burrows). Like wise, some companies such as Electronic Arts Incorporated (EA) has hired more women to expand their company’s diversity. EA currently has a number of female developers working on a game series title “The Sims,” a series consisting of four games and is one of the top selling PC (personal computer) games (Burnett). Moreover, the diversity of gender even comes down to the money involved within the industry. Female developers earn an average of $10,000 less per year than their male counterpart and female game designers earn an average of $12,000 less per year than their male counterpart …show more content…
Female characters are in games mostly to exist to be background dolls, damsels in distress, or to be assaulted so the player has something to do (Harwell). However, some characters such as Lara Croft, from the “Tomb Raider” game series, can be seen as a strong, agile, confident, and fearless woman (Burnett). In other video games such as Half-Life, Radiata Stories and Elder Scrolls, women are not sexualized and are represented as respectable and intelligent women
are males (Harwell). Despite the large scale of male employment, female employment has increased from 2005, increasing from 12% to 20%. However only 3% of those women are game developers, or programmers, and 11% are game designers. Nuukster’s (a gaming company) chief executive David Engel has gone through many female applications while hiring but almost all of them were from artist, zero from programmers (Burrows). Like wise, some companies such as Electronic Arts Incorporated (EA) has hired more women to expand their company’s diversity. EA currently has a number of female developers working on a game series title “The Sims,” a series consisting of four games and is one of the top selling PC (personal computer) games (Burnett). Moreover, the diversity of gender even comes down to the money involved within the industry. Female developers earn an average of $10,000 less per year than their male counterpart and female game designers earn an average of $12,000 less per year than their male counterpart …show more content…
Female characters are in games mostly to exist to be background dolls, damsels in distress, or to be assaulted so the player has something to do (Harwell). However, some characters such as Lara Croft, from the “Tomb Raider” game series, can be seen as a strong, agile, confident, and fearless woman (Burnett). In other video games such as Half-Life, Radiata Stories and Elder Scrolls, women are not sexualized and are represented as respectable and intelligent women