What Does It Mean When Women in Game Development Earn Less Than Men?

GP Editor Marcus Estrada attempts to analyze and break down why women earn less than men in game development and if there is any one simple answer.

[ziggurcat]

it means:

story quality? WTF? like this website? no.

[TwistedMetal]

woman earn less because the guys are obviously more skilled as guys were there first to get into gaming, computers and all the technological stuff from the start. few woman found these industry's attractive until other fields they wanted to be in got over crowded and they say hey i need money maybe this degree can give me a job in games. similiar to people who work at specialty stores like a music store or game store yet know nothing about either but they needed money and a job.

there is just not a lot of hardcore girls who are so into game development like dudes are. these dudes spend hours upon hours upon days without showering drinking mountain dew and such making games, and mods and such. not many woman do that if any.

the fact that theres even a group of girl gamers whatever they call themselves with their website shows you how few there are out there on the super hardcore end of things. a group of girl gamers made visible because the lack of hardcore girl gamers compared to man. now look at the hair industry why do woman make more then man in that lol. some things woman all flocked to and do better then man at, and some things man flock to and do better then woman.

it has nothing to do with equality man are better at things woman arnent and vise versa/ different interests.

woman own the nursing field as far as pay, man the construction field. can you guys see we have different strengths and weaknesses and interests?

[dedicatedtogamers]

Bravo. THIS is the exact sort of "gender equality" journalism that we need right now.

Enough with the "I found an obscure and vague reference to a nipple in Pokemon X/Y's new trailer, therefore SEXIST PATRIARCHY OPPRESSION!"

Everyone should give this article a click and a thorough read.

[GenericNameHere]

"I found an obscure and vague reference to a nipple in Pokemon X/Y's new trailer, therefore SEXIST PATRIARCHY OPPRESSION!"

Is that a real article? I'm intrigued now...

[dedicatedtogamers]

It's not real....yet.

[Blacktric]

Please don't give Patricia Hernandez any ideas.

[rainslacker]

It was a very good article. Researched to the best of what was available, and researched well given the data set. Even had graphs. It is easy to tell the first couple comments didn't bother to read it.

Twisted metal did make one good point in his entire idiotic post. Women just don't seem to be pursuing the field as much as men. Even my own anecdotal evidence of when I studied game design shows me this. In a class of about 200 students, there were only I think 14 women in various stages of the curriculum. Don't think that's because there are less female gamers as Twisted suggests though. Most recent ESRB studies indicate they make up about 40% of the game playing consumer.

Given the thought above, however, it seems in an industry which is highly competitive, when you have 100's of resume's to choose from for one job, the job is invariably going to go to the person with the most to offer. Some places are going to favor hiring men, but doesn't necessarily mean that the industry as a whole is sexist, just some people in it.

Society in general tends to be somewhat sexist though, even if not overtly. Certain stereotypes persist, often times without a person's knowledge. I have no doubt that that may play some factor in all of this issue.

[MilkMan]

Status Quo

[weekev15]

I did Games Tech at Uni, we had 1 girl in our class of 50. Its a male orientated industry, women are welcome but because gamers are stereotypically male this has driven the current state of gender equality in the industry.

I genuinely dont think there is any sexism, its just that there are more men interested in a career in the gaming industry.

[DragonKnight]

Bubbles to you. A sensible comment.

[auragenz]

Bubbles from you. What you expressed does nothing to further the conversation, and your whole thought is better expressed just by clicking "Agree".

[DragonKnight]

I could say the same about you. My comment was on topic, yours not only wasn't but could be interpreted as any number of other debubble votes. Congratulations.

[rainslacker]

I was in a class of about 200, and we had 14 women in the curriculum. I knew a few of them, and from what I saw of all of them they were confident and capable.

While I don't have any personal knowledge of how they were treated by the other students, it seemed like they were just part of the group overall. Any harassment they may have received was likely more to boys being disrespectful in general.

I really wish more articles would approach the topic in the manner this one did. It would make it more effective to get to the core of the issue.

This whole sexist issue may not be what it seems. It may just be the current make up of what is available for hire. Without more facts about the pay disparity it's hard to say. I do know that random instances of disrespect towards women is not endemic of a trend as a whole.

[DragonKnight]

Normally when I see one of these articles I say to myself "Ugh, not another one of these whining white knights championing something in the name of women everywhere again," but this was a really well written article.

I doubt there is a concerted effort to pay women less than men. Most, if not all, jobs have a pre-determined salary before a person is hired. If you look in most employment ads, they will usually tell you the salary outright and that's regardless of gender. You won't find an ad that goes "Wanted: One programmer. If Male, position pays X. If Female, position pays Y."

The numbers obviously don't lie, but I'd like to see research into the idea that perhaps women are getting paid less because they get to pay less, while receiving more, in benefits such as health or life insurance. Look anywhere, and you'll see women always pay less insurance than men, and often get more than men. Perhaps there is a balancing act going on with the funds due to that. I don't really know.

All I know is, trying to claim that there is an actual attempt at paying women less smacks of conspiracy theorist behaviour. I'm not saying that this article is doing that, I'm just saying in general.

[weekev15]

I dont think women get less because they pay less but the rest of your post is spot on.

There are many factors to consider with gender equality including my points above. When women have children they will in general be off for a long time whixh impacts on promotion prospects etc. I would seriously doubt that in this day and age people pay women less because of sex. Its society and circumstance which has led to this gender divide.

[Ravenor]

I always wonder what is the job experience of some of these women who reportedly get paid less? I always thought with video game development in one of the bigger development houses, would probably be fairly liquid with compensation and depend largely on past experience and how the quality of past work was received.

[rainslacker]

Not to disprove you, but salaries are negotiable. Our teachers said never take what they offer you. Always ask for more. If they want you enough to give you a job, they are often willing to pay more than what is listed or offered. However that amount is usually close to what is mentioned in the ad..usually by a few thousand or so. However, salaried position pay, or pay scales in general are usually pre-determined before hand and included in corporate manuals to protect the companies from such claims.

I think in general, the gaming journalist articles I've seen about this aren't necessarily conspiracy theories with their intent. They just tend to be based on assumptions and hyperbole about what the author thinks they know on the subject based on some simple Google research or personal belief.

Sexism in the workplace is a large social issue in general, and not confined to the game industry. Many strides have been made to reduce it and bring about equality, but one can't ignore that it still exists in many places. I don't believe people should stop trying to fight the good fight, just wish they'd actually provide a better battle, because so far, the ones most seen on here, come up way short of the front line. More articles such as this would be a very nice addition.

[Heavenly King]

It means her role and job in the game is not as important in the game as the other people.

[lashes2ashes]

Did you even read the article? It about how women get paid less for the exact same job than men do. I don't see how a jobs importance is relevant at all to the article.

[ShaunCameron]

Probably. Especially if there's less accountability involved.

[Asuka]

Unfortunately, this isn't just limited to the gaming industry. In any sector you look into, you will see that women get paid lower for the same job as their male counterpart (in general). I myself do not see any clear reason as to why this is, for it makes no sense to me. Be it is a "male"-centric world, i do not agree to use this as a valid excuse. Its pretty sad that in todays bright society we still see such ignorant inequalites with no reasoning behind it at all, and again, unfortunately, this has been accepted as the normal, and any discussion about such topic will be labelled as an "issue" when it shouldnt be in the first place.

[ShaunCameron]

They work less than men? They're unable or unwilling to put in the same amount of work/hours as men?

@ Lance_Leon_Lionheart

If that's really the case, why don't companies just hire women since it will cost them less? They don't do it, because that would kill their productivity since women are far more likely to miss work for long periods being the child-bearing gender they are overburdening the remaining workers, and probably end up going bankrupt from all the maternity leaves they have to pay out.

<Its pretty sad that in todays bright society we still see such ignorant inequalites with no reasoning behind it at all, and again, unfortunately, this has been accepted as the normal, and any discussion about such topic will be labelled as an "issue" when it shouldnt be in the first place.>

It's even sadder that in today's bright society people still insist on taking wealth away from one group and giving it another in the name of equality as a legitimate way of solving societal problems. "Ignorant inequalities" are largely a figment of the imagination of those who think just because of who they are and what they supposedly been through the world owes them something, and those who co-sign them.