游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

性别比例严重失衡 女性应积极进入游戏领域

发布时间:2012-08-24 15:57:13 Tags:,,

作者:Lee Hall

最近刚上任的Women In Games Jobs(以下简称WIGJ)团体代表Gina Jackson相信,英国开发者只有更好地利用全国女性人才的智慧,才有可能在世界舞台上获得竞争优势。

7月份,Gina Jackson在第一次接受媒体访问时表示,她非常关心英国游戏产业的发展,并且她还告诉我们在英国游戏产业中,女性工作者只占比6%,这是一个非常严重的比例失调问题。

women_in_games(from edge-online)

women_in_games(from edge-online)

“游戏产业应该吸纳更多女性工作者的最主要商业原因便是,越来越多女性开始玩游戏,”Jackson说道。“所以我们需要在开发团队中达到一种性别平衡,女性能给我们带来巨大的帮助。”

“我非常关心英国产业的发展,这也是我为何会提出这个问题的原因。”

Creative Skillset(游戏邦注:政府资助的团体,主要是监管技能供应和需求问题)最近数据表明,如今游戏产业中的女性工作者数量处于过去十年中的最低点。游戏产业中的女性比例从2006年的12%跌至2009年的6%。“我们的产业已在无形中错失了许多人才,”Jackson说道,“也许是女性自己不愿申请行业中的相关职位,这应该也是造成女性人数如此少的主要原因吧。”

但是不管具体原因是什么,游戏产业都属于一个特殊的例子。与效力于更广大创意媒体产业(女性占比42%)和整个英国经济领域(女性占比46%)的女性数量相比,6%这一比例真是太低了!

Jackson(游戏邦注:Ocean工作室的前负责人,Kuju、Nokio和Eidos的业务拓展总监)表示WIGJ的目标是在2013年前,将游戏产业中的女性工作者比例提高到10%,以及在2020年前提高到25%。

尽管明确了这些特殊的目标,Jackson并未仓促地起草一份改变声明。“我们首先需要通过收集数据去理解出现这一现象的原因,”她解释道,“是女性自己不愿意申请这样的工作,还是她们缺少足够的推动力,或者是她们已经来到了这里但却最终还是选择了离开?这些都是我们的猜测,或者也有可能是多方面因素所促成的。”

当然了,Jackson也认为肯定存在阻碍女性在游戏产业中谋得工作的根源。她也表示虽然招聘人员很乐意接纳女性员工,但是摆在他们面前的求职信却寥寥无几。

不过她也不是认为缺少应征者是导致游戏产业性别差异悬殊的主要原因。“我很讨厌那种在招聘开发者时最后才考虑女性求职者的现象,”她说道。“对于我来说这是最不可原谅的事。我们必须根据每个人的优劣去看待求职者,所以我非常反对这种做法。工作是相对于个人而言,而不管申请人是何种性别。”欧盟就业立法也赞同这一观点:面向特定性别的招聘工作是不合法行为。

Jackson认为性别一直是她求职生涯中一个大问题。“在我之前所服务的一家公司中,我便因为是女性而获得比男同事更低的收入,即使我后来升职了待遇也是不如对方,”她回想道。“也许是我那时候还不敢大声说出自己的不满。不过从那时起一切都发生了巨大的转变。”

她并不愿意谈论自己之前所遇到的性骚扰或性别歧视等话题,而是希望传达给那些立志进入游戏产业的女性更多积极信息。

“我希望鼓励女性勇敢地站起来,大声讨论自己的诉求并找到更好的方法去解决问题,”Jackson说道。“许多女性曾在媒体中做出各种评论但却都遭到游戏玩家的攻击。如果你问我女性是否遭到了不公平待遇,我的答案是许多人的确是这样的。但是这时候便会有更多人问我,为何游戏行业中的女性就需要一个特殊利益保护团体,因为也有许多其他行业的女性从未因为自己的性别而遭遇不公对待。”

Jackson(软件咨询公司Blushing Blue现任总经理)认为女性进入游戏产业的主要障碍便在于她们对于这种产业的看法。“女性之所以被拒之门外的一大原因便是她们在玩游戏时,并未将自己当成真正的游戏玩家,”她说道。“在八九十年代,有关游戏‘奇葩’的新闻报道都不是一些正面内容,并且也未能真实地反映出现状。”

Jackson认为摆脱标签是实现游戏产业中性别平衡的主要方法,同时也是推动女性在此获得成功的最佳手段。“出现这种性别比例失衡的情况,很大程度也是因为媒体总是将我们贴上‘游戏中的女性’这样的标签。但是这种描述却一点帮助都没有。”

而作为朴茨茅斯足球俱乐部的忠实粉丝,Jackson更希望人们根据自己在职场上取得的成绩而不是根据性别来评价她。并且对于她来说促成其人生重大转变的事件主要与足球有关。“在游戏产业中我做过的最让我自豪的一件事便是签下了《冠军足球经理》这款游戏。我希望凭借这款游戏实现一些出色的成绩。而事实也证明这是一次非常宝贵的经历。”

Jackson相信推动游戏多样性的关键便是通过举办各种大会,让女性能够在此展现她们对游戏产业所作出的贡献。这个组织接下来的工作便是努力承办好第二届European Women in Games Conference——将于9月26日(周三)在伦敦拉开帷幕。

“我们并不是在责怪任何人,”Jackson说道,“我们需要做的只是改变整个产业的看法。而我们也只有努力成为产业中的佼佼者才有可能做到这一点。”(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Women In Games Jobs determined to fix dismal gender split

Lee Hall

The recently appointed chief executive of Women In Games Jobs believes UK developers can only compete on the world stage by tapping into the nation’s wealth of female talent.

In her first press interview since taking up her post at the not-for-profit special interest group in July, Gina Jackson says she is “massively concerned” about the state of the UK industry, telling us the fact that just six per cent of those with jobs in the UK game industry are women is a key problem.

“The biggest commercial reason to get more women into games jobs is that more and more women play games,” Jackson tells us. “You need a more balanced group of people in development, and women can help an awful lot.

“I am massively concerned about the state of the UK industry, that’s why I have stood up about this issue.”

The most recent data cited by Creative Skillset – the Government-sponsored organisation which monitors the supply of and demand for skills – shows representation of women in games is at its lowest in over a decade. The proportion of women in the industry halved from 12 per cent of staff in 2006 to just six per cent in the next survey year of 2009. “The industry is potentially missing out on a lot of talent,” Jackson says. “I don’t know if women are not applying and that’s why they are under-represented.”

But whatever the cause, the game industry appears to be a special case. The six per cent figure is dwarfed by the proportion of women working in the wider creative media industries’ workforce (42 per cent) and the UK economy as a whole (46 per cent).

Jackson- a former head of studio at Ocean, and business development chief at Kuju, Nokio and Eidos – says WIGJ is targeting an increase in the number of women in games jobs to 10 per cent by 2013, and 25 per cent by 2020.

But despite those specific targets, Jackson will not be rushed into drawing up a manifesto for change. “First we need to understand the figures by collecting data,” she explains. “Is it that women aren’t applying for jobs, that they’re not being promoted, or are leaving the industry? We can all guess and it’s probably those things and more combined.”

Certainly Jackson is concerned there may be deep-rooted problems putting women off jobs in the game industry. And she claims that, anecdotally, recruiters are keen to employ women but just aren’t receiving enough applications.

Not that she believes the lack of candidates should lead to positive discrimination. “I’d hate women-only shortlists for development jobs,” she says, adding, “for me that would be the most appalling thing to do. People should be treated on their merits, so I am against that. When it comes to a job it comes down to an individual, regardless of gender.” EU employment legislation agrees, of course: it’s illegal to advertise jobs for specific genders.

Jackson believes gender has been an issue in her career. “At one company I was paid less than male colleagues. Then I was promoted and I still got paid less,” she recalls. “Maybe I didn’t shout loud enough at the time. Things have changed massively since then.”

The former producer is reluctant to discuss specifics of harassment or overt discrimination she may have encountered, preferring instead to focus on positive messages to send out to women aspiring to a role in the game industry.

“I want to encourage women to stand up and talk about what they do and to find a better way to do that,” Jackson says. “So many women who have made comments in the press have been attacked by people – not those in games – but those who play games. When you ask if women are treated unfairly, there are lots who are. But many others ask me why we even need a special interest group as there are many women who have never encountered any problems because of their gender.”

Jackson, now managing director at software consultancy Blushing Blue, believes a key obstacle to women is their perception of the industry. “Possibly one reason for women being put off is that while they play games they don’t see themselves as gamers,” she says. “And in the ’80s and ’90s, press coverage of games ‘geeks’ did no good and didn’t reflect reality.”

Jackson believes overcoming labels is a key to improving the gender balance in games as well as a yardstick for her success. “The problem with having a minority is that if you do stand up the media label us as ‘the woman in the games’. That doesn’t help either.”

Instead Jackson – a proud Portsmouth Football Club fan – would prefer to be known for what she has done in her career than her gender. And, for her, once such milestone had a football connection. “One of the proudest things I did professionally was signing Championship Manager Mobile. I wanted to do something good with Championship Manager. The experience was brilliant.”

And Jackson believes a key to promoting diversity in games is through conferences that enable women to showcase their contribution to the industry. The group’s next event is the second European Women in Games Conference, taking place in London on Wednesday, September 26.

“What we are trying to say is that we are not blaming anybody,” says Jackson. “We need to change how the industry is perceived. We want to do that with role models – hundreds of them.”(source:edge)


上一篇:

下一篇: