CONTENT WARNING: The following article mentions instances of sexual harassment and discrimination which may be distressing to some readers.
Girl Geek Academy is calling for the Federal Government to, “fix the system, not the girls,” by taking concrete action to address structural issues that “squeeze” women and girls out of STEM careers, including those in the games industry. According to the 2022 State of STEM gender equity data, only 19% of game developers are women.
The Australian-based social enterprise surveyed more than 300 people as part of their submission to the Federal Government’s Diversity in STEM review, and the data and stories coming out of the report paint the picture of a grossly underfunded and often overlooked issue that impacts girls and women at each step of their STEM career path.
The ‘Enough Talk’ submission outlines the barriers women and girls face in studying STEM topics, breaking into industry roles, and staying in them, and based on their findings, there are a lot of barriers. Beyond the testimonies from women who’ve struggled with bias and discrimination in the workplace, uni and even in early learning, Girl Geek Academy’s report makes 16 recommendations for change that could help women get into STEM roles and, importantly, stay in them.
Can you recall a time where you have seen a woman “pushed out” of tech?
We want to hear about it: https://t.co/5Z9UrLZHTr pic.twitter.com/AhgiNuwCM5
— Girl Geek Academy ™️ 🌈 (@GirlGeekAcademy) May 3, 2023
Girl Geek Academy is focused on achieving gender equality in the tech industry, with the goal to get one million women and girls into tech careers by 2030. This submission aims to push the Federal Government to take action and invest further in initiatives to diversify the STEM industry.
According to the survey results, some women in game design found themselves and their peers pushed out of production or other “hard” disciplines because they weren’t “trusted to do the work the same way men are,” and they weren’t alone; there was a running theme of being promoted sideways into roles without further progression, or forced into taking on administrative or housekeeping tasks regardless of skill level across many STEM disciplines.
Many young women early in their careers also found themselves subject to hiring and promotion bias with the assumption that they would leave their role soon to start a family; however, men starting families in similar roles weren’t met with the same resistance.
Harassment at every stage
While many of those surveyed described coming up against bias and the exhaustion of trying to speak up due to backlash, they also outlined experiences of consistent harassment in workplaces and at university. One person described being “shown porn by someone without consent because they thought it was the ideal way to demonstrate their modded PSP.”
Another respondent said they had been sexually harassed at networking events and by higher-ups in the games industry. The harassment worsened for those who were part of another under-represented minority, including those with a disability, LGBTQI+ people, and people of colour. Given previous reports of harassment and discrimination in the broader global games industry and by players of the games they create, these anecdotes, unfortunately, come as no surprise.
The report paints a damning picture of the state of the industry and the difficulties women and girls experience, even in the classroom. Another person surveyed recalled that their “computer teacher would jokingly call me a slut when I liked wearing corsets” during high school computer classes, and other stories from women studying STEM told of being repeatedly asked out and asked to meet up after hours alone by university teachers. According to Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic, only 16% of STEM qualifications are held by women.
Big fixes for a big issue
Despite the waves of negative experiences women and girls have faced while trying to engage with STEM industries, Girl Geek Academy’s submission makes a number of recommendations that they hope will create positive change in improving diversity and making STEM a safer place for marginalised people.
Of the 16 recommendations, the call for incentivising the industry to foster diversity and inclusion through diversity employment targets as a condition of the receipt of tech subsidies, grants, and government procurement & tenders stands out as a solution that could greatly impact the success of diversity initiatives in the games industry. In the local industry particularly, grants and government funding are often vital to financing projects and studios.
Women who’ve been pushed out of the games industry specifically said they wished there was “more government funding to women-founded gaming companies,” as this may have led to them remaining in the industry.
More funding needed
Girl Geek Academy’s submission also reinforces that current diversity funding for STEM doesn’t properly address the needs of women in often vastly different disciplines due to the main funding for combating gender inequity coming from one pool. Of those surveyed, 65.8% said they didn’t believe programs to increase diversity in STEM adequately addressed tech specifically. Respondents said they expect more than a token effort and token hiring to tackle such a large, structural issue that impacts such a large group of people.
The Women in STEM & Entrepreneurship (WISE) Grants, which Girl Geek Academy notes they have been a recipient of, has an annual pool of around $13M but spread across three years and four industries (as well as Entrepreneurship), leaves only $806,000 annually to address diversity in tech. “That is not enough to run Girl Geek Academy, let alone address gender inequity across four industries and innovative start-ups across the STEM career life course,” the submission said of the current funding.
The Diversity In STEM review is still ongoing, with the panel behind the review set to report their findings and make recommendations to the government late this year. While there’s plenty of work to be done, Girl Geek Academy’s submission makes up one of many major reports into the chronic underrepresentation of women in STEM and here’s hoping some of their recommendations are taken on board to improve the state of the industry.
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