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After all, somebody has to point out the obvious!

Who has more female developers - the gamers or the inkers?

"An industry which celebrates violence and the exaggerated female form might expect to be an all-male domain - but a university launched a frantic search today after a prestigious new computer games degree failed to attract a single woman.

The Microsoft-backed honours course has had applications from 106 male undergraduates, but now hopes to strike a gender balance by holding a series of summer camps."

Ouch! Then again, this seems to be the unfortunate fate of the IT industry anyway: most women were never really interested to begin with - probably because IT is still nerdy, no matter how you spin it - and the overall CIS enrollment in the United States is falling as well, with many students opting for technical schools in other countries. The Guardian article says that "women make up only 17% of the industry's workforce, with only 2% employed in technical and software development positions." I wonder what those numbers look like in places like India or China these days.

Of course, if you take a niche area like Tablet PC/ink application development, which accounts for, what, maybe 10% of developers, you could probably count the women without needing to get your toes involved. Maybe Julia could provide us with a demographic update.

Published May 10 2005, 10:02 AM by peter
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Comments

 

Navito UK said:

I'm all for equality, but obviously most women just aren't that interested in creating computer games, so I don't think there's a lot of point trying to get them interested. After all, you have to have an interest in something to enjoy it as a career.
May 11, 2005 9:06 AM
 

peter said:

Very true. However, I also wonder if that's because many women aren't interested in gaming itself (thus why should they create something they don't particularly enjoy to begin with), and if so, is that just a male vs. female thing that's set in stone, or more of a lack of game types that appeal to women.
May 11, 2005 11:21 AM
 

Vinit Bhansali said:

Funnily enough, from my experience in working with the software professionals in India, I see Indian IT workplaces having a little better male to female ratio (= more % of women).

I believe part of the reason US lags behind is the overall (US) media impression that Electronics was and IT is a male-fantasy world.

In India, the general concept is that girls not only beat the top ranking engineering guys but as a whole, don't have to deal with the idea of what type of study is for what gender.

If you also look at many US colleges and the % of American women taking engineering vs. the % of female Indian international students at the same colleges you will notice the difference immediately!
May 11, 2005 1:49 PM
 

Julie Lerman said:

or, maybe they are out there and are interested but too daunted? Need a little encouragement to stand up and be counted? Just a thought - not a known fact...

So Peter, you're blogging again? Woo hoo!
May 11, 2005 7:02 PM
 

peter said:

Julie, that's just a rumor going around, pay it no heed.
May 11, 2005 9:26 PM
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