TIGA & ELSPA: Industry must embrace gender equality
UK trade bodies also highlight the importance of encourage greater diversity at educational level
TIGA has responded to the statement from Minister of Equalities, published exclusively on GamesIndustry.biz earlier today, agreeing that the industry needs to embrace gender equality, and highlighting the extent of the issue in the UK.
According to the 2010 TIGA-Hewitt Games Software Developers' Salary Survey only 6.6 per cent of the workforce in female, something with TIGA CEO Richard Wilson has called "an extraordinary gender imbalance".
Lynne Featherstone MP made the statement in relation to the Women in Games sub-event at this week's Develop conference in Brighton, warning businesses that they would "risk being uncompetitive" if they didn't reflect diversity more effectively.
"The videogames industry would like to recruit a more diverse workforce," asserted Wilson. "If we are to recruit a more diverse workforce then we need to encourage more women to both study courses relevant to the games industry and to highlight the career opportunities that exist in the sector.
"TIGA produces a career guide for this purpose. We hope that the Government will work with TIGA to champion the games industry as a potential career path. All games businesses must ensure that their selection and recruitment policies and practices promote equal opportunities and recruit on merit."
Meanwhile ELSPA director-general Michael Rawlinson has expressed a desire on the part of the publisher organisation to address the problem, highlighting the importance of changing the perception of the industry at school level.
"ELSPA/UKIE will be looking at how we engage with people who potential want to work in the industry at a much earlier stage, ie Secondary school age," he wrote on GamesIndustry.biz in response to our initial story on the subject.
"Our objective is to raise the interest of all students in the industry, to sign post them to study the right subjects, and to hopefully ignite their imagination and enthusiasm for studying Maths, Physics and Science through the magic of interactive entertainment."
However, he did acknowledge that while he felt many people recognised the problem, it was a tough challenge, and "changing the landscape will be a much harder problem."