Why I Hate Women In Games Initiatives Mare Sheppard Metanet Software Inc.

mare@metanetsoftware.com

A not-for-profit coalition of projects and people whose goals are:

● To help people make games

● To connect game makers with each other and with an audience, IRL

● To foster diversity in game creation and public perception of games

Encouraging women to make games.

Sex differences between men and women do not affect capability.

Feminism

Women and men are equal and deserve the same rights.

-Game Developer Magazine

"has innate inferiority been the reason for the small number of eminent women, or has civilization never yet allowed them an opportunity to develop their innate powers and possibilities?"

-Cora Castle

-xkcd

Stereotypes

● Automatic

● Influential

● Imprecise

Stereotype Threat

Knowledge of how we are stereotypically expected to behave actually impacts our performance.

Off-Putting Things I’ve Noticed

● I receive less eye contact on average

● I get fewer hand-shakes/introductions

● I am interrupted in conversation more often

● People are often surprised to hear I’m a programmer

● My suggestions are remembered as coming from Raigan instead of me

I’ve Been Told

● I’m over thinking it

● I’m making it up

● I’m biased and am looking to support my bias

● I’m hypersensitive

● I should just let it go

● They’re just socially awkward

● They don’t mean it

● It’s not their fault

● It’s unconscious

Premise: Intelligent, modern and enlightened people are not sexist.

Premise: I am an intelligent, modern and enlightened person.

Conclusion: Therefore I cannot be sexist.

Bias

Easy to see in others, hard to see in ourselves.

(a Hand Eye Society Social)

The Somebody’s Girlfriend Problem

Segregating and categorizing game developers is a bad idea.

What is the Difference Engine Initiative?

● Built on Artsy Games Incubator (AGI)

● DEI ran twice, 6 women per incubator

● Program is 6 weeks long

● 1 three-hour session per week

Sessions: talking about games, learning about development, learning how to use tools eg. Stencyl, giving feedback.

What is the Difference Engine Initiative?

● Purpose: to demystify the process of making games

● At week 4, participants would start simple game projects using new skills plus their own ideas

● 5 weeks later, games and participants were introduced to community

Difference Engine Initiative (DEI)

Budget (TIFF Nexus)

Open to women who love games

= political undercurrent

Role models / mentors

Lots of media attention

Artsy Games Incubator (AGI)

No budget

Open to people who love games

No role models / mentors

Not much media attention

My Concerns With the DEI

Meritocracy

Where we are hired and valued based on the quality of our work rather than our gender, age, social status, skin colour etc.

Gender stratification highlights and increases inequality. Nurse -> Male Nurse NBA -> WNBA Police Officer -> Female Police Officer

So why would I run a Women In Games initiative if I am so opposed to them?

So what happened?

12 women learned how to make their first game.

● Diverse game content

● Warm welcome into community

● Each woman found a new way to express her voice, which is a huge positive.

Self-selection bias

A condition where the characteristics of the people which cause them to select themselves in the group create undesirable conditions in the group.

So what happened?

• Confrontational attitude towards men

• Contributions devalued as a result

• Inequality persists

So what happened?

• Confrontational attitude towards men

• Contributions devalued as a result

• Inequality persists

• Purpose of DEI misconstrued as support group

• Caused friction when that purpose was not served

What I Learned • The DEI model works for some women, but not others. A more varied approach would open doors for more people.

What I Learned • The DEI model works for some women, but not others. A more varied approach would open doors for more people.

• Under certain conditions, trying to address discrimination and inequality can allow it to flourish.

What I Learned • The DEI model works for some women, but not others. A more varied approach would open doors for more people.

• Under certain conditions, trying to address discrimination and inequality can allow it to flourish.

• Allowing stereotypes to form the basis of our understanding of people has lasting negative consequences when that is inaccurate.

What I Learned • The DEI model works for some women, but not others. A more varied approach would open doors for more people.

• Under certain conditions, trying to address discrimination and inequality can allow it to flourish.

• Allowing stereotypes to form the basis of our understanding of people has lasting negative consequences when that is inaccurate.

• We need to be more clear about what the purpose of each initiative is, and why.

Why I Hate Women In Games Initiatives

If we want to attract a variety of people, we need to take a variety of approaches.

The value of diversity

Diversity leads to an increase in the quality of debates and more creative output.

Specialties of

Diverse Teams

Innovation

Exploration

Novelty

Creativity

Specialties of

Homogeneous Teams

Implementation

Exploitation

Comprehension

Execution

-Mannix & Neale, 2005

Diversity increases:

● Novelty

● Originality

● Innovation

● Divergent Thinking

● Creativity

If we want to eliminate inequality, segregation does not help.

● From early childhood, men and women at school, work, and in volunteer activities are usually gender segregated. Gendered subcultures emerge that strengthen the perceptions of gender differences and erode the common ground on which intimate, status-equal friendships between the genders are formed.

●

● Differences rather than similarities are much more likely to be noticed, defined, and acted on.

Rouse, 2002

We are individuals, not stereotypes.

We can change.

It’s not about numbers.

Let’s make this industry the best.

● "Let us rise loftily above ourselves. We owe a duty both to ourselves and to others to lessen the harmful effects of the brain's various shams whenever we can. To be all eyes and ears for influences that may lead us astray when we are making important decisions. To be more tolerant of opposing viewpoints, however much it may seem that we are on the side of the angels. To bolster our feeble wills against temptations, distractions, and impulses. To resist the easy complicity of stereotypes when judging others. To endeavour to put in the necessary groundwork to bring the unruly actions of the unconscious in line with our principles and values."

Cordelia Fine, 2006. A Mind of Its Own. Page 209. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

Works Cited

● Why So Few?

● reducingstereotypethreat.org

● The Sociology of Gender. Pearson, 2010.

● Sex differences in the brain are not necessarily correlated to psychological differences (Moore, 1995, Haier et al, 2005)

● Gender stereotypes influence gender ratios (Nosek et al., 2009)

● Stereotypes cause us to change our behaviour (Davies et al., 2002, Davies, Spencer & Steele, 2005)

Works Cited ● Priming stereotypes (Moè, 2008, McGlone & Aronson, 2006, Hausmann et al., 2009)

● Stereotype threat (Logel et al., 2008, Davies et al., 2002, Beilock, Rydell & McConnell, 2007, Schmader & Johns, 2003, Schmader, Johns & Forbes, 2008, Johns, Inzlicht & Schmader, 2008)

● Environment and behaviour (Ickes, Gesn & Graham, 2000)

● Experiences and group membership(Seger, Smith & Mackie, 2009)

● Changing the way our brains operate (Monteith, M.J., J.W. Sherman & P. Devine, 1998)

Works Cited ● Understanding prejudice

● Sociology and Beyond: Agency, Victimisation and the Ethics of Writing

● Inequity

● Changing the culture of the workplace

● Gender Stereotypes and Gender Attitudes in the Assessment of Women’s Work

● Dasgupta, N., & Asgari, S. (2004). Seeing is believing: Exposure to counterstereotypic women leaders and its effect on automatic gender stereotyping. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 642-658.

Killing us Softly - Jean Kilbourne

Works Cited ● Westecott, Emma. “Growing-up with games” Digital Creativity 2009, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 205–209

● Gender and gaming

● Cheryan et al., 2009

● Spelke and Grace, 2006

● The Evolving Culture of Computing. Blum & Frieze, 2005