{"id":824,"date":"2021-11-04T10:31:19","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T08:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/sustainability-unwrapped\/?p=824"},"modified":"2022-06-06T11:54:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T09:54:36","slug":"fostering-diversity-and-inclusion-in-digital-games-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.hanken.fi\/sustainability-unwrapped\/2021\/11\/04\/fostering-diversity-and-inclusion-in-digital-games-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Fostering Diversity and Inclusion in Digital Games Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Digital games industry has become the largest entertainment industry in the world and gaming careers are portrayed as a lucrative option for passionate game enthusiasts. However, there has been continued public turmoil regarding the discriminatory and non-inclusive aspects of the industry. We have seen multiple waves of public revelations as employees of major game studios have disclosed systemic sexism, gender-based discrimination and racism1, 2, 3<\/sup>. According to research, building a career in the digital games industry is particularly challenging for women as well as other minority groups like racial and sexual minorities because of the prevailing gender stereotypes and the masculinist culture of the industry, and the gamer culture at large 4,5,6,7, 8,9<\/sup>. In the light of all this, it is unsurprising that the efforts to recruit women into coding and the games industry have been mostly ineffective \u2014 women comprise one-fifth of the game industry workforce both in Finland and globally 10,11<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this episode of Sustainability Unwrapped, Marke Kivij\u00e4rvi, Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher at Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 University School of Business and Economics and an affiliated researcher at GODESS institute at Hanken, discusses with Jenni Ahlapuro, a community volunteer at Inklusiiv<\/a> and a communications consultant working within the tech & games industry at Netprofile, and Marianne M\u00e4\u00e4tt\u00e4, President of Female Gaming Finland ry<\/a> about the importance of raising awareness of the inclusion problems in games sector and ways of actively supporting diversity and inclusion. The guests share their experiences as players and members of gaming communities and talk about their volunteer work to support diversity and inclusion in the games industry spaces, and the wider tech sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Women gamers often encounter negative or dismissive stereotyping, which both Jenni and Marianne have experienced themselves. \u201cSome people assume I can\u2019t play or have a certain taste because of my gender. Like, I\u2019m only into easy or casual games, or don\u2019t really know much about gaming and the history of games\u201d, says Jenni 12<\/sup>. Marianne adds that harassment in voice-chat is rather common, which is why female gamers often play with gender neutral gamer tags and refrain from using the voice-chat 13<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays much work is done to create safe spaces within gamer communities, says Marianne 14<\/sup>. In addition, achieving a sense of inclusion and attracting more diverse workforce requires that companies start paying attention to how they can disrupt exclusive aspects of their organizational cultures and the masculine associations of games jobs. Jenni emphasizes that while \u201cwe need to treat diversity as the company-wide business transformation\u201d, it doesn\u2019t mean that the whole company needs to be transformed overnight. Rather, diversity and inclusion can be implemented gradually and one practice at a time. Jenni suggests that companies could, for example, pay attention to the company\u2019s external communications and examine whether the images they use support the creation of a welcoming and inclusive employer image. 15<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tune in to this Sustainability Unwrapped episode, to learn more of the gendered barriers to inclusion and how we can work towards a more inclusive and diverse gaming cultures and industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text written by Marke Kivij\u00e4rvi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marke Kivij\u00e4rvi examines gender in the digital games industry in her Academy of Finland – funded postdoctoral project \u2018(No)space for feminism? Gender and postfeminist sensibilities in male-dominated organizations\u2019 (Funding decision No: 315220).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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