At InspireFest 2015, Brianna Wu spoke about the ongoing struggle that women face entering the games industry. Even though she pointed out her disappointment with certain E3 discussion panels, she emphasized that the industry is slowly getting better. Women are getting into games ever so slowly, but it’s definitely happening, according to her.
Wu’s discussion began with her voicing concern over poor representation in these industry conferences like E3. She cited one example: PC Gamer, who had run a discussion panel at E3 that featured 28 men and not a single woman. According to Silicon Republic, she said:
“When it comes to women speakers, it seems like there’s this formula we run into. We have a panel in the tech industry that is announced and no women speakers are included.
“They get called on it, they come forward and say ‘no, no, no, no, no! It’s not the final program and we will have a woman on stage!’ Then no one learns anything and a few months down the line we’re back to square one.”
It’s true that there were more women on stage at this year’s E3, and there were more exclusively female protagonists featured in the games themselves, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, the bar wasn’t set very high to begin with. But it was nice seeing Ubisoft’s presentation pass the Bechdel test when Aisha Tyler started fangirling over Angela Bassett, who was talking about her role in Rainbow Six: Siege.
Wu made it a point to highlight that yes, things are changing, albeit slowly. In her Q&A, she said:
“Even if [the editors of major gaming publications] don’t have the highest consciousness raised on this, I think they’re aware of the problem, and they want to address it in a way I don’t think they did five years ago. So we are changing [the industry], it’s getting better. It’s brutal for the women who have to deal with this BS in the meantime, but what I’m looking forward to is another ten years into my career where I don’t have to stand on stage talking about this.”
With each passing month, it does seem like the industry is slowly getting better. It’s the community and the people around the industry that have to get better. Wu believes it comes from the top-down, while many others believe it has to happen from within. Examples can be set all day every day but until the gaming community—whatever that might mean these days—changes, the road for women in games is going to be a rough one.
Putting women in your games is a nice start. But actually increasing your company’s outward representation goes further. Doubling down on the women in the industry (and your company) by not hesitating to call out harassment (read: Gamergate) where and when it happens is even better. There’s so much to be done, and it seems like we’re past the point where consciousness of a problem isn’t the problem anymore.
Now we know what’s wrong. It’s time for us to actually fix things.
Check out an excerpt of Wu’s full talk below:
(image via Silicon Republic YouTube)
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