Gender wage gap: How the game industry compares to the U.S. average

According to the newly released Gamasutra's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014 [PDF], women make less than men in every department in the game industry.

For the full article on Gamasutra, see Gender wage gap: How the game industry compares to the U.S. average

Girls-only game dev camp going global

Good to see other efforts to interest girls in game industry careers.

Shabir says, "So, how do I get girls interested in making games? I know girls like playing games. Maybe a summer camp would do it."

The inaugural camp was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California in June, with follow-up camps hot on its heels. The next session is in Los Angeles. Then San Diego, Austin, Boston, Denver, Washington D.C. and Seattle. Later London, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Melbourne and Dubai. 

For full article, see Girls-only game dev camp going global with support from publishers

In September: European Women in Games Conference

The fourth annual European Women in Games Conference will take place on Wednesday, September 10th, 2014, at London South Bank University.  For tickets and info, go to http://ewigconference2014.eventbrite.co.uk

This year’s conference theme is “Your future in games” and will feature a range of topics, such as starting up a game company, career advice, and encouraging students to pursue careers in technology.

NY gender gap in tech jobs is widest in nation

 38% of NYC-area tech companies have women in top jobs.

"Women are still being "actively discouraged" from entering the tech field, said Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit working to close the technology gender gap."

For full article, see New York gender gap in tech jobs is the widest in the nation, report says

European Women in Games Conference New Speakers Announced

A number of additional high profile speakers will be appearing :

Noirin Carmody: COO Revolution Software
Fiona Sperry: Studio Director Criterion Games
Belinda Parmar: CEO Lady Geek

For more information, see http://wigconference2013.eventbrite.com and join the Women in Games Jobs Linked In group to see how to get promotional 15% off admission.

New Toys for Girls

Frustrated by the lack of non-Barbie-type toys for girls and armed with research on girls' play patterns, these entrepreneurs decided to create toys for girls that would ignite creativity, promote positive self-images, and interest girls in science and engineering.

In particular, I found the research very interesting:

"The play is also very precise with girls," says Kaskey, referring to the way in which girls set up the sports figurines on which the portable playing field and then add their own stuffed toys as spectators.

For the full article and to read descriptions of non-"pink" toys, see "New Toys for Girls" from Westchester Family.

Feminist Game Design Explored

NYU Game Center recently announced an upcoming series of lectures on feminist game design. To kick off the series, game designer and researcher Jessica Hammer described the design process of a game intended to strengthen the emotional skills of Ethiopian teenage girls.

For more information on other lectures in this series, check the NYU Game Center blog.

Reactions to female voices in FPS games

Over the weekend, Wai Yen Tang posted some findings from a study on how female voices are perceived in multiplayer FPS games.  Female voices received three times as many negative comments than male voices or mutes.

For the full analysis, see Wai Yen Tang's blog post.

Women in Military Video Games

With the Pentagon's recent announcement that all combat roles would be open to women, it has led to speculation as to whether or not military shooters like the popular Call of Duty series will now feature women more prominently.  The lack of female protagonists in such games has not gone unnoticed. 

In "Games need to address women in military combat," Caleb Hale describes this lack of female protagonists as an example of the game industry's "male-centric mindset" and urges developers to address gender equality in video games. Hale does point out that futuristic, sci-fi games do feature female protagonists, perhaps an indication of a more enlightened society.

Jared Newman in the article, "Women in Combat Roles:Who Knew Video Games Were So Progressive?" expresses the opposite viewpoint, praising the industry for the depiction of capable female warriors in several of these futuristic games.  The mechanics of the games give the same abilities to males and females, alike.

But will we see these female warriors in more realistic shooters?  In "Games likely to follow Pentagon on women in combat," Derrik J. Lang reports that game makers are already thinking of scenarios in which women would appear in combat roles.

The Risks of Telecommuting

Beware!   A telecommuter's lack of "face time" may be leading to smaller raises, less promotions, and poorer work evaluations.  Whether unintentionally or not, managers seem affected by "passive face time" (being observed in the workplace or working) or "extracurricular face time" (being seen at the workplace or near co-workers outside of normal hours.)

If you're telecommuting, you can try to make a bigger impression by getting colleagues to mention you, by visiting the office more, giving regular status updates, and sending all your e-mail really early or really late (gives the impression you're working beyond normal business hours).

For the full article and to read how employers can avoid unfair evaluations based on face time, see "Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters."

Passion Capital

"Passion Capital" is the world's most valuable asset, according to Paul Alofs, author of the book, Passion Capital.  Many businesses are recognizing that in order to tap into a worker's passion capital, especially in creative industries, they may have to re-envision their work policies. When or how an employee is inspired may not be up to a regular 9-5 work timetable and thus, innovative businesses are allowing more flex-time, telecommuting, employee perks, employee choices, and are looking to see how they can reward and encourage their employees.

More and more studies indicate that working longer does not equal more productivity.  In fact, after more than 8 hours of work, productivity drops by half.  Moreover, long overtime hours cause an employee's health to worsen and doubles the employee's risk of depression.  European countries where working over 48 hours a week is prohibited still manage to maintain a competitive edge while also having a high happiness quotient.

As mentioned on my other blog, in the article "On Volunteering", one of the worse feelings is a person putting in the work and not being appreciated for it.  Major companies like Symantec and Intuit have instituted a type of crowd-sourced bonus system whereby anybody in the company can nominate a co-worker for a bonus.  Not only does the employee get a bonus, but the social recognition helps too!

Take a look at some of the ways companies are trying to tap into and recharge passion capital:

AOL Huffington Post Media Group:  Special nap rooms to rest during the day.

CouchSurfing:  Option to work one month from anywhere in the world

Autodesk:  Pipes in soft ambient noise to help employees focus

Betterment:  No official work hours; employees choose when and where they want to work

Diversity in the Workforce

I once asked at a WIGI conference if diversity in the workplace had made an impact on design decisions.  Normally, people talk about the impact on female character models or how diversity in the workforce can broaden the market appeal of the games.  I'd like to hear your thoughts on how diversity in the workforce affects design decisions.

I'm an economics major, so when I presented at the Women's Game Conference in 2005, I discussed the economic impact of diversity:  reduced recruitment costs, increased staff motivation, increased creativity, and greater growth in new initiatives.  A more diverse workforce means more diverse backgrounds and experiences, which can lead to richer ideas and greater community connections.  Moreover, studies have shown that when the male:female ratio is more even, employees feel that it is a more pleasant work environment and this leads to higher productivity.

So why is it that there are fewer women in the game industry?  #1reasonwhy has shed some light, citing reasons from misogyny to harsh work conditions to unequal pay.  The prevailing economic thought on women's unequal pay when I was taking Labor Economics in college had to do with the fact that women can have babies.  Because some women had babies and chose to drop out of the workforce, it was reasoned that employees could not count on women to be reliable.  Therefore, it was riskier to hire women.  Also, those women who did drop out of the workforce tended to do so during years when men were climbing up the corporate ladder so they lost valuable time in their careers.  Often times, they could not return to the workforce after a hiatus.

However, the 2000 Nobelist in Economics James Heckman, who conducted a exhaustive study on women in the workforce, concluded that there was no "typical" woman who dropped in and out of the workforce.  There were women who worked all the time and there were women who didn't work or worked part-time or seasonally.  He concluded that companies should pay attention to the women who worked and invest in them equally.  An unequal wage to a valuable employee would only be detrimental to the company and to the industry.

Of course, as many HR managers in the video game industry might tell you, it can be challenging to find a diverse pool of qualified applicants.  It takes top-level commitment.  See the video below for ideas on diversity initiatives.

Women in Games Jobs London MeetUp

Wednesday, March 14, 2012, 6:00 PM

The Alchemist
135-137 Houndsditch,
EC3A 7BX
London

Women in Games Jobs is pleased to announce its first London Meetup at The Alchemist near Liverpool Street station.

These meetups are the opportunity for anyone interested in gaming to meet leading, female video game professionals and an opportunity for you to network with other women in the industry over a drink. Men are welcome too. Meets ups are planned quarterly, normally from 6.00 – 8.00 pm on a Wednesday evening near Liverpool Street, London, UK. Each meetup will include a talk from a prominent speaker from the games industry giving personal, practicable career tips and advice.

We are delighted to have as our first speaker Alison Cressey, former European MD for Activision. Alison’s talk is titled “So you know you have the professional X factor – why personal branding is so important to success.”

Alison Cressey is a senior executive and consultant advising leading companies on brand and content strategy and digital to build for future success. She has extensive experience in brand and digital strategy having worked on some of the world’s largest brands. She has also run multimillion $ P&L’s for global organizations. Prior to becoming a consultant Alison’s most recent roles included running the Lucas Arts and Activision Blizzard licensed/casual video games business across Europe. Whilst there Alison grew the Lucas Arts business from $20 to $150m. Alison was responsible for some of the world’s best known entertainment brands including Star Wars, Transformers and James Bond. Prior to that Alison oversaw marketing for Warner Bros. Entertainment including Theatrical, DVD, TV, licensed products, consumer products and mobile where she increased revenues by $10m+ and changed the way Warner Bros did marketing.

Please register your interest and join this group now!

For more information, click on the link above.

Game changers: the women who make video games

"Women have, of course, always played video games, but in the past it was always as a minority. Yet a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau in September found that 49% of gamers in the UK are female; but that percentage is not being reflected in the makeup of the industry, particularly at senior levels."

For the entire article, click on the link above!

NYT: Zynga's Tough Culture Risks a Talent Drain

“We’ve learned that when companies treat talent as a commodity, the consequences are severe,” said Ms. Toledano of Electronic Arts. “It takes years to repair a reputation.”

For full article, click the link above.

The three biggest myths about women in tech

For full article, click on link above.

"One common response from the mostly male responders was that these data must be incorrect and misleading because they personally have not witnessed these issues. In other words, if I haven’t seen or experienced bias, it cannot possibly exist.

Interestingly enough, when presenting these findings at different companies and organizations, we got the same response time and time again from the women and people of color who work in IT: “This data doesn’t surprise me at all; it is perfectly aligned with what goes on here.”

Booklist: Walking Out on the Boys

Frances Conley was the first woman ever appointed to a full professorship of neurosurgery at an American medical school. But she resigned due to sexual harassment, revealing tales of fondling in the operating room to Time magazine. In 1998, she published a tell-all book called Walking Out on the Boys.

The publication of this book coincided with the results of a 30-year MIT study on female faculty members. The study concluded that there was a generational pattern: that while junior faculty thought sexual discrimination was a thing of the past -- when they were promoted, they felt "invisible" and excluded.

One even wrote: "I mean literally not heard! Where you say something, and it's just ignored until one of your male colleagues says the same thing 10 minutes later!"

The study concluded that "in no case was this discrimination conscious or deliberate. Indeed, it was usually totally unconscious and unknowing. Nevertheless, the effects are real."

Between the 1960's and 1990s, there was a big increase in the number of women earning Ph.D.s in math, science, and engineering. Yet, the number of female research faculty members at MIT remained at 9%.

For PapyaMobile, women are the "whales"

Papaya Mobile finds that "whales," or users spending more than $100 on a game, accounts for 60% of its revenue.

Excerpt:

As is customary in games, PapayaMobile depends heavily on the tiny proportion of users who pay for goods in social mobile games. But one of the surprises is that some of the most enthusiastic customers, known as “whales,” are for the most part women. Papaya found that 69 percent of its big spenders in games are women.

For full article, click on link above.

Gaming with Your Daughter is Good for Her

Link to full article above:

This study linked positive outcomes for parents playing video games with daughters, but did not find the same results for parents playing video games with sons. The authors theorize that it may be because sons have more video game time with friends.

In addition, parents (usually fathers) playing video games with boys played games like Halo while games like Mario Kart were usual when playing games with girls.

Another interesting note:

The BYU researchers found that 31 percent of the children reported playing age-inappropriate games with their parents (42 percent of boys, 15 percent of girls) and they report that "heightened parent–child connection was not found for girls who played these age-inappropriate games with their parents."

Where Are the Women in Tech, You Ask?

"So why don't we know about these women in tech? Simple. Women are far less likely to be in love with the technology for its own sake vs. their male counterparts, so they tend to be low key in talking about the technology itself. You're not likely to hear a woman say that her technology is "sick," though I've heard that term used by not a few men CEOs . These women are not likely to be found in tech meet-ups as they are far more likely to be found helping their kid with homework. All of which is to say, women tech CEOs may not have the brash bravado of her male counterparts, but their relative silence should not be mistaken for absence."

To see the full article from Advertising Age, click on the link above.