
52% of All Computer Gamers Are Women - mathchick
https://code.likeagirl.io/why-it-companies-should-hire-more-women-5666252b667d#.fq59e1vg3
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jquery
If 52% of Computer Gamers are women, isn't that a _counterpoint_ to the thesis
of the article--i.e., that more women need to be writing software so that
software appeals to women?

EDIT: It feels like we've reached the point where any statistic, no matter
which way it swings, will be used to support a feminist agenda. If only 10% of
gamers were women, I trust that would also be used to support the article's
thesis.

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oculusthrift
or maybe games aren't really that sexist and women are enjoying games like
Zelda just as much as men are. i dont think it takes being a man or woman to
enjoy mario or metal gear or a good story.

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flukus
It's not like samus ever stopped me from enjoying metroid.

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r00fus
Quite the opposite!

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brighteyes
> in 1985 37% of women had a degree in Computer Science. In 2010, this number
> rolled down to 18%. Without a doubt, this negative tendency will have a huge
> — and potentially demolishing — effect on tech companies.

We'd all love to have more women in tech, but "huge", "demolishing"? Tech has
been highly successful despite that decline. Other fields do just fine without
gender balance (psychology and veterinary doctors are dominated by women, for
example; the fields aren't being "demolished").

Yes, some studies show that greater gender balance is good for an industry.
But many factors affect an industry's success. There is no need for alarmism.

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BadassFractal
Exactly. Is nursing being demolished? Are oil rigs being demolished? Is
kindergarten being demolished? Is the car maintenance industry being
demolished? Is metal working suffering?

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BadassFractal
50% of car drivers are women, cars use gasoline, where is the uproar about 97%
of offshore oil rig workers being men? Why shouldn't we bring more diverse
thought into crude oil extraction?

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parenthephobia
The reason you haven't heard people complaining about that is likely that
people don't complain about the lack of oil rig gender balance on the sorts of
web sites you visit. A moment's googling, however, finds people who work in
the oil industry who are upset at the imbalance there.

Having said that, nobody is claiming that women oil rig workers are better
qualified to produce gasoline for women, whilst that is the claim the article
makes about women developers. So your question isn't really apropos.

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BadassFractal
Women developers aren't better than men developers at writing business logic
and math for videogames, just like women oil rig workers aren't better at
extracting crude oil. It doesn't matter who does either one of those, genders
don't play a difference in code writing just like they don't play a difference
in train conducting or operating cranes. The end result is you have a bunch of
code that executes machine instructions. There is no "female object
orientation" or "female monadic enterprise patterns".

If you were to argue that female game designers, product managers, producers
and writers are better qualified to make games for women, female marketers are
better at marketing to that demographic, sure, I can absolutely buy that
argument.

However the gender imbalance people always focus on is the one for individual
contributors and programmers, not marketers, not designers, nor people doing
the higher level product or creative work.

If diversity really makes a difference when it comes to writing machine
instructions, diversity should matter for mechanics, miners and oil rig
workers.

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vacri
> _The National Center for Women and Information Technology states that in
> 1985 37% of women had a degree in Computer Science. In 2010, this number
> rolled down to 18%._

Ugh, this is a badly distorted statistic. The link says 37% of computing
graduates were women, which makes more sense. This kind of obvious poor
attention to detail makes any other statements about the current way of things
suspect.

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GolfJimB
Bit of a click-bait title, I wanted to read about female gamers not gender
inequality in the work place...

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nikolaj
not to mention the assertion of 52% is based upon a link to an article that
references (but does not link) to a 2014 study
([https://iabuk.net/about/press/archive/more-women-now-play-
vi...](https://iabuk.net/about/press/archive/more-women-now-play-video-games-
than-men) actual study PDF requires membership.

Amusingly the press release states that "The growth in women and older gamers
has been driven by free games, primarily mobile apps." and
"Trivia/word/puzzles are favourite genre – driven by older women", which kind
of does not line up with the "Computer Gamers" statement (or maybe I am just
nostalgically thinking that means mouse+WASD).

Ah the Internet, proof of the amazing ability of information to twist and turn
out of context.

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hprotagonist
>Recent research shows that a man’s brain mostly utilizes gray matter, whereas
women’s brain usage is predominantly white matter. This leads to pivotal
differences in the thinking process, enabling men to offer strength in focused
activities and making women greater multi-taskers.

this is baldly incorrect. The study they allude to 1. doesn't make this claim
and 2. has some reasonably nit-picky things that make me think it's
underpowered.

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NiceGuy_Ty
"A more thorough review of the distinctions between the male and female brain
leaves a pressing feeling that we came from different planets (Venus & Mars,
no less)"

I'm not sold on there being a distinct anatomical difference between the
brains of men and women. I think it's more accurate to say that the
differences between individuals is larger than the differences between the
genders. That is, you'll find plenty of women with 'male' aspects and plenty
of men with 'female' aspects.

A study of 1400 individuals that seems to be in opposition to the paper the
article references:
[http://m.pnas.org/content/112/50/15468.abstract](http://m.pnas.org/content/112/50/15468.abstract)

I don't have a biology background, so I'm not sure which paper should be held
in higher accord.

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brighteyes
When psychologists or neuroscientists hear "male and female brains are from
different planets", as the article writes, they cringe.

It's true that there are some average differences between male and female
brains [1], and we shouldn't forget that, but we still understand little about
how the brain works. Also the article goes so far as to say

> Peculiarities of the brain structure make women emphasizers, able to
> interpret other people’s emotions better and share their feelings. Men are
> more inclined to be systemizers, somewhat more able to analyze, explore and
> intuitively understand how things work [..] It all boils down to the fact
> that women can add some much needed balance to the tech industry — adding an
> alternative thought process and bringing intelligence to the table.

Which amounts to "we need more women because their brains are different",
which is worth comparing to the old-school sexism of "we need less women
because their brains are different".

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience_of_sex_difference...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience_of_sex_differences)

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holydude
This is very tiring. The only thing we need to do is to prevent sexism and
mistreatment towards women and then encourage women to pursue careers they are
afraid of pursuing. I do not see a reason to have 50/50 f/m team. It makes no
sense to hire less capable woman vs more capable man.

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techmaniack
100% of all Wives in a couple are Women.

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oculusthrift
farmville and candy crush?

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dang
Please don't post unsubstantive comments.

