Female developers need to 'put themselves out there
by Michael Arsenault on Sunday, July 10, 2011 , under
An independent female developer has argued the way to tackle gender imbalance in the games industry is to change perceptions in school.
"The only difference between me and my maths-inclined, game-loving friend - who does advanced needlepoint instead of engineering - is that she succumbed to the peer pressure," Dunki told Develop.
She argued that gender imbalance is a problem that is too big for the industry to solve all by itself: "The outreach needs to go down to the [early] school levels. That's where the research shows girls stop studying maths and science due to pressures from peers and other sources."
Develop reports that 42 percent of all game players are women, according to recent ESA data, but it's believed that only one tenth of game developers are female.
If efforts are made in schools now, Dunki thinks we will see results in the industry in a couple of generations. "In the meantime, the best thing we can do is provide role models. If you're a female engineer or scientist, put yourself out there," she added.
Dunki's words echo those of LucasArts' creative director Chris Hocking, who said on Wednesday that the industry needs to attract more women and become a little less obsessed with fart jokes.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/310898/news/female-developers-need-to-put-themselves-out-there/
13 comments
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minecraft129
July 10, 2011 at 2:45 PM
There are women in the developing industry? hmmm, interesting.
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M Fawful
July 11, 2011 at 6:41 AM
There fewer women in all kinds of programming related fields. It's no big deal, just specialization. :D
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Charles Godfrey
July 14, 2011 at 12:35 AM
One of my best friends is a PHP developer. She's 16 and she's very good at it. She also sysadmins *nixes.
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July 10, 2011 at 1:37 PM
Thats very true. Girls are being drawn out of math/science career paths at young age. You dont get to see a lot of women in those fields, thing that as stated, should change gradually but it aint easy.