The Gendered Identity of Women in the Games Industry

Prescott and Bogg's 2013 study examines how women working in the games industry understand their gender identity at work. Set in the context of a UK games workforce that was only about 4 percent female in 2009, the research frames the industry as having a "masculine culture" that excludes or deters women. Drawing on gender-in-technology scholarship and the visibility-vulnerability spiral, the authors set out to test whether women in game development would show low gender identification at work and a masculine gender identity.

The central findings challenge the second of these expectations. A survey of 454 women found that 82 percent reported low gender identification at work, consistent with patterns documented in the wider information and communication technology sector. Notably, 93 percent described a high androgynous gender role identity, scoring strongly on both masculine and feminine scales rather than adopting a purely masculine self-concept as earlier literature had suggested. The authors interpret this androgyny as a plausible coping strategy for women navigating a male-dominated field. Significant differences also emerged by country, with UK developers identifying less strongly with their gender than their US counterparts, and by age.

The study's scope is limited to women in the UK and US games industry at a single point in time, and its sample is predominantly white (84 percent) and possibly self-selected, which constrains generalizability. The authors call for further research into why women adopt low gender identification and androgynous identities in this field, a question the article positions as central to understanding gender dynamics in technical creative industries.