EA executive: blaming sexism for keeping women out of industry is “a cop-out”
By Tim Colwill on January 22, 2013 at 9:02 am
In an opinion piece published on Forbes, EA executive Gabrielle Toledano claims that “If we want more women to work in games, we have to recognize that the problem isn’t sexism.”
While Toledano doesn’t deny that sexism exists, she claims that it’s no worse than any other industry and that blaming men for it doesn’t help to fix the problem. “If women don’t join this industry because they believe sexism will limit them, they’re missing out. The sky is the limit when it comes to career opportunities for women (and men) in games. If we want the tide to turn and the ratio of men to women to really change then we need to start making women realize that fact,” claimed Toledano.
“Sexism is an unfortunate reality of our times, but as women we must seek the power and ability in ourselves to change the dynamic. Cast aside the preconceptions, and look for the opportunities and places to make an impact. And I can tell you firsthand that in the video game industry women are not just welcome, we are necessary and we are equal.”
Source: Forbes
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Of course “having” to have X% of women in any industry, government etc is in itself sexist.
The sooner we learn to respect and appreciate the differences between the sexes the better off we will be.
darthteddybear,
Totally.
It presumes that both sexes are equally as interested in the pursuit as well.
Would be nice to have equal input on government policies, at times. …But to be fair you’d need two representatives for every seat, if you really think about it. And screw that!!
Who says woman aren’t as interested as men in a creative medium like games?!
This is pure ignorance dude!
I don’t think affirmative action is necessarily a bad thing… The fact that it has to exist is a bad thing though. The problem is that without affirmative action people get overlooked based solely on their skin colour/gender/sexual orientation etc. People who are not straight, white males are at a disadvantage, no matter how much you might want to say otherwise. If affirmative action is what it takes to remove that societal barrier, then it’s a good move to take.
Female gamers are approaching nearly half of the gamer demographic (something like 42% by a recent industry research article I remember reading), yet the amount of women in creative or management roles in the industry does not even begin to reflect that.
Depends which games, teamplay games like LoL or DOTA only have a 5% female playerbase at best, same for the entire series of shooters (CS / COD / BF)….
On the other hand, casual games like Farmville and hidden object games are nearly 90% female…
I think the gender representation would scale appropriately in those cases, I can definitely see more females working in a company making hidden object games rather than shooters.
And why should it? These two stats are completely uncorrelated.
It’s not like every person who plays games wants to make them.
Claiming that there is any gender issue relating both stats IS sexist, and its statements like this that are the problem.
The perception that an industry is ‘sexist’ has massively outweighed any actual sexism present in many idustries for decades. Perpetuating the perception is by far the biggest ‘discrimination’ hurdle nowdays, as why would anyone be eager to even start getting an education in a field if theyre told they’ll be discriminated against in the workplace (when the actual discrimination isn’t even present)
You talking to me??
No-one said that. lol
My post was a reply to DTB’s. So take that as the context. :)
This right here is how I feel about many industries and the bigotry involved, especially around perceptions of sexism.
Fact is women and men have differing personalities, of which affects our abilities and desires. I should also mention the differing discriminations in the workplace, for example men doing heavy lifting.
If you can’t do something, you’re not equal. Pretty simple really.
Which brings me to this which compliments my ideology.
The moment we stop going on about how each sex is treated and focus on the strengths of both, the sooner we can all just get down to business, and stress less.
Discrimination is a negative aspect of humanity which will always be and this effect is cause but this aspect. Ignorant, stereotyping and dominance is the reason why it happens also stupidity… Of coarse I’m all against it but this would always exist. Good vs Evil kind of thing. Jedi vs Sith in Star Wars Universe =)