Feminists, Games & Innovation: Thinking and Designing with and for Difference
One very real “clash of realities” in the 21st century is the enduring inequity between men and women in terms of pay scales and available careers, and this is acutely so when it comes to using, designing and developing leading edge digital technologies. This ‘digital divide’ is most apparent in the commercial games industry, where far fewer women (10-15%) are employed, despite the fact that it is one of the largest cultural entertainment industries globally. Understanding and documenting the persistent under-participation of women in such ‘edge’ technologies is assuredly of social, cultural and economic interest and importance, however only if it is conceived as a feminist project will games culture, industry and education sectors move beyond investigation, description and analysis to actively engage, to effectively intervene and to successfully transform that situation.
Two related, and very pressing questions demand innovative solutions if that transformation is to happen: 1) In a massive entertainment industry that continues to drive substantial job growth, what can change the conditions through which game design and development remains a technicist and unmistakably masculinized domain—despite the fact that the industry involves much more than the typically male-dominated field of programming (art, music, writing, etc.); and …
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