Sexism isn't keeping women out of industry, says EA exec

I agree with her on this... Sexism really isn't the issue when you think about it, it's the media perpetuating that Men only play video games and are basement women hating devils. Just as Amy Hennig Stated, women are afraid and uninterested (as the real cause would seem in comparison with this interview). I believe women to some degree believe that there is a concentrated effort to keep them out and that narrative itself is keeping them out. I mean, if I heard a certain group of people stole everything all the time, I think I would start to become fearful of those people. If you want more women in this industry, then we have to stop looking for reasons to blame men.

"There are no women on the stage at this conference Grumble Grumble" - When you make a big deal out of that it does not help women.

"These characters showcase an unreal standard of beauty for women" - Don't you think you're telling women who enjoy their sexuality and good looks that they are somehow lesser ?

I'm sure there are many of the usual suspects hitting the headlines that just shape the gaming industry disingenuously. If we want to be recognized as an art form, we cannot rely on outsiders to dictate exactly what art is, and we can not let people simply plow through the industry unchallenged when those ideas call out gaming. You may think that you're helping when you point out "Perceived" sexism, but what you're really doing is holding up Negativity over Positivity.

I'm tired of every body saying LOL GIRLS PLAY VIDEOGAMES 2!!!!!!1 yeah I know that my aunt played videos game all the time when I was younger, I'm not an idiot so stop suggesting I am just because all your dumb@ss guy friends say only dudes play videogame...

Sexism is probably more of a problem in an industry like the Food Service industry e.g. Hooters.

There may be some, but i don't think that is the real issue. Carolyn Petit said the opposite in her long ranting blog a few weeks ago. I think girls are just less interested in games, Does that mean no girls play games? No, it's the same with men and women dominated jobs.

I have mixed feelings about this. Sexism without a doubt is to blame for at least some of this and I hope she realises this. I do think that women should disregard the sexism that happens, but if sexism was abolished from the games industry then you would see a lot more women in there without a doubt. A lot of men are to blame for the lack of women in the industry through sexism online and other places. It's just an obvious glaring fact.

She's from EA. Her argument is invalid!

Maybe because girls don't like video games? How many girls do you see at gamesstop? how many girls do you see at gamestop without their boyfriends?

@HipHopBeats Then you need to keep your eyes open more.

I'm glad sexism isn't having that effect. I've been so worried.

Great article I wish there were more like it. Women keep themselves out of the industry. Also, when the media talks about the "wage gap" between men and women, that is also due to women taking lower paying jobs than men, not being paid lower for the same job. Sigh, but the white man still gets blamed by the uneducated.

I work at a business with 2 women. One is an administrative assistant, and the other is the accounting exec. Looking for a few new hires in the business, and there were a few women who applied, they were interviewed, and seen as great candidates for the job, but the 2 women in the office already did not want them hired. This was their business, and they wanted to be the only females in the business. (It is a small 10 person business) I have seen it more often then not the women in the office wanting less women there. It is just sad that we men are getting blamed 90% of the time.

Oh miss I hope you get qualified people, that should be the priority. Girls helped to design some Mass Effect games and Portal after all.

Why do more men like sports than women? Because men like seeing people getting hit. Women don't as much. There are women who like sports but just not as much as men. Thus as a result some women aren't into math as much. Others are. If less than 50% of women like going into math, why should the industry hire 50%? You hire who is the best fit based on skill level and qualifications. End of story.

Plus if the industry is sexist. Wouldn't they want to hire more women to look at? Sexism could apply that way too.It's equal pay for equal work. But they also forget about equal qualification (education level and experience).

"Her biggest issue is that the game industry is perceived as more sexist than other male-dominated workplaces, when in fact this may not be the case. At the same time, she acknowledged EA employs far more men than women, and this is an "issue to fix." "

Eh.... the only problem with this statement is for the same reason why I don't believe in affirmative action as a general solution. You shouldn't employ anyone because of their sex, race, religion, etc, just to fill some quota. You should hire the best person for the job regardless of "x-attribute". If you don't, then you end up with a woman with an associate's degree in graphic design getting hired over a man who has a master's degree in 3D design. While it is important to NOT discriminate in the work force, it's also important that you're able to hire the best person for the job based on merits, education, and experience regardless of age, race, sex, etc.

It always seems to me that sexism gets the blame for STEM fields not being that interesting to women. They don't want to do STEM in the first place and use the perceived sexism in STEM careers as an excuse not to do it.

Just put in charge/employ those who are best suited for that position. If you are employing 5 people I don't care if they are 5 men, 5 women or mixed as long you get the 5 best you find.

(opinion based in 5 years in the games industry, 1 as a team leader)

Nope, it's keeping maturity out of the community. Which is completely different :P

This sounds to me like the Tennis thing ;

Female players wants to get pay the same price money as males, in grand slams. But they only want to play two sets, instead of the five sets that males play.

This feminist thing is getting out of control.

This article is spot on. I work in the game industry and everyone would like to see more females in the industry, but very few of them even apply. In game design, the men/women ratio is about 50/50, and in the artistic department as well, however, in other departments such as engineering and QA, it's mostly men. It doesn't have much to do with video games directly either, as even at college, there was about 1 girl for 30 guys. In my previous job there was not a single woman. Considering that where I work, the ratio is about 10% women, video games seem to attire more women engineers than anything else.

HR is mostly composed of women, but they are really part of the game development.

She forgot the 4th secret....

She is a T-1001 masquerading as Gabrielle Toledano.....

Oh brother. Feminism is anachronistic now-a-days. And she is laying some pretty nasty insults on men if you have the brains to discern it.

if almost 50% gamers are female, how come we dont see them? i know whats the problem, they try to act like they dont like games even if they actually do because of bitchy peer pressure.... and thats sad.

Here's this for a mighty concept, instead of focusing on maintaining some sort of social benchmark, why not hire people based on their TALENT and SKILL be they man or woman, instead of trying to meet some kind of gender quota.

This article !
This kind of 5th column backstabbing of white-males with a social engineering agenda is nothing less than expected from the main jew-media.

I guess if you're a white male you should just go flog yourself and die alone because you dont deserve anything and you're the EVIL race and you're women should hate you, bitch in your face, disrespect you, divorce you and leech of your finances forever !

Either we toughen up, take charge, muster the authority, or our sons and grandsons, raised by crazy single mothers, will get trampled 10 times more than we do now and have their dignity and hard work taken from them.

http://htmlimg4.scribdassets.com/6hvqqz4vuo21u4vo/images/29-8fbb8dcaf3.jpg

She's actually completely correct.

Sometimes I see people with female armour in Halo 4 and wonder if they are women or cross-dressers.

Yeah I love these sexism rants from gamespot.Always get people to talk... a lot. My opinion is that the sexism card is being overplayed just as much as the racism card. Here in my country we have a insurance company, for women, is their name. You can only join this insurance if you are a woman. Now that is allowed, but I can assure you, should someone start with a company that says you can only join if you are a man it would be an outrage, symbol of sexism blah blah. Even my wife says she is so tired of woman blaming sexism on everything, when here she has a way better chance than me of getting promoted etc etc. Do I complain... no. i don't care because I do what I can do and that is it. Hell of the four directors that is my bosses 3 of them are women. Do I scream sexism on that? No cause they are the best for the job, women or not. And yes, all our friends that are female, whom I asked if they wanted to go into game design etc said hell no, that is for nerds. So guess what, it is women's perception that must change, nothing to do with men. anyways that is just my opinion...

Good, I suppose....

she was paid by a male to say the above :P

So basically we were right all along there was a discussion( and I use the term lightly) and those of us who were pointing out that its not sexism thats keeping women out of gaming were denounced as sexist pigs from the land of male chauvinism.