Video game culture has long been a boys-only club, with women rarely making an appearance.
This is rapidly changing. According to recent studies from the Entertainment Software Association and the Internet Advertising Bureau, about 50 percent of gamers now are women. Additionally, there is a push for more female producers, designers and programmers to create video games. The U’s entertainment arts and engineering program is no exception to this movement.
The number of undergraduates enrolled in the program is difficult to track because students don’t have to declare until they graduate. Rachel Leiker, a graphic designer in the department, said they typically have around 150 to 225 students in the program. Of these students, Leiker said upwards of 30 percent are women — well above the industry standard, which hovers around 20 percent.
“There are more women into games now than there ever have been before,” Leiker said. “It’s becoming this really cool, new interesting job prospect for [students] — especially women.”
There are two tracks for undergraduates in the program: film and media arts or computer science. Both majors skew male, according to the U’s Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis. In addition, both have around the same number of women, Leiker said.
The program doesn’t actively recruit women, but there are public information sessions every Friday at 10 a.m. in the Merrill Engineering Building, room 3345, for students interested in the program.
“There’s never not been at least one woman in the informational session,” Leiker said, “at least as long as I’ve been around.”
Even though they don’t specifically target women, Leiker said it is important to have gender diversity in the program.
“It increases a perspective that is not grown and just kind of broadens the experience for everybody,” Leiker said. “Things can get kind of closed in games, especially when you’re not taking into account other people’s perspectives and life experiences. A broader range of gender, cultural background, sexuality helps to expand the experience of not only the team but also the game.”
Corrinne Lewis, an academic program manager and associate instructor in the program, said the increase in female undergraduates in gaming at the U is part of a broader trend of women seeking higher education. It is also due to the rise of younger women playing video games and pursuing that interest in college.
She said women face systemic problems deterring them from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
“The funny thing about it is that games don’t just skew towards those disciplines. Games are everything … There are producers, project managers, marketers, programmers,” Lewis said. “Which is not to say we don’t have female programmers; we do, but we need to do a better job showing girls who are interested in games that our program is interdisciplinary.”
Lewis said that she has been a part of the program for the past five years, and she’s noticed more girls enrolling.
“The game industry and game players and gaming community sometimes gets a really bad rep for being very male-centered,” she said. “I’m not saying that isn’t true, but there are a lot more women here, and we need more girls.”
@Ehmannky