| Title | Women in gaming earn less than men |
| Author | Nick Diamon |
| Posted in | Games |
| When | April 4, 2013 |
Despite strides in the industry for equality and inclusiveness, the salary gap between the genders continues to be an issue according to an annual survey recently conducted by Game Developer Magazine..
Read the full articleWomen in gaming can afford to accept lower wages because chainmail bikinis are less expensive than plate armor.
What were we talking about again?
Why are you assuming that women have less tenure? Do you have any evidence (or even anecdotes) for that, or are you just inventing possible excuses out of thin air?
Since women currently occupy significantly less of the industry's developer and publisher positions, it was suggested by Game Developer Magazine that they may have less tenure. Unfortunately, I have no data to back that up. I'd love to see some figures. I'm sure that would be eye-opening as well.
"It can be assumed...?" Since when? You know what they say about "assume" making an ass out of u and me.
I see. I got the impression from your article that you (as opposed to GDM) were the one engaging in this speculation. I think your word choice also caught my eye; "likely factors" carries a very different connotation than "possible factors."
(While we're on the subject, you might want to cite to the original GDC article on the topic in addition to citing to the blog that called your attention to it. Primary sources are too often overlooked in internet gaming news!)
I'd love to cite the Game Developer Magazine, but it's strictly a print mag. The blog reprinted some of the charts and analysis, albeit in a less neutral manner.
Normally, I don't condone reprinting print magazine content, but this is an important issue that's already getting cited at various sites like Eurogamer.
Well, the first completely vague non-evidence that comes to my mind is that when I close my eyes and remember those weird, dated, and somewhat creepy design team photos that appeared at the back of paper manuals or inside folding box covers-- they all looked like a geek version of record album cover and featured rows of men. When I see similar photos on websites nowadays, the demographics (and social self awareness) looks to have changed a whole lot over the last few decades. But still, not any kind of real evidence there.
And even if my non-evidence had any weight, I don't think tenure would do much to explain disparity. The industry has so much development team churn, short company life cycles (relative to other industries), and repeated complete overhaul of skill sets that I would think it ripe to be an example of equal pay for equal work. Yet, it would seem not to be the case.
Unless you can show that women are being paid less for the same jobs, with the same qualifications and tenure, this story is meaningless and says nothing about discrimination at all.
A comparison of hourly wage rates would actually be meaningful, rather than total yearly salary. I strongly suspect it would still be skewed in favour of men, but less alarmingly. But minor disparities don't make headlines.
I think it was how chicks with big honkers don't get to work in a bacon factory as it's distracting to all the bacon professionals. We need to decide on a dress code of sorts. So let's go with the plate mail bikinis as it offers better AC while still showing off the hoohas . Problem solved.
Actually, considering how much churn there is, and that people are constantly fired and then rehired elsewhere, that might be the explanation. There have been several studies in recent memory that show that women tend to be less aggressive about pay, less likely to push for what they are worth, and therefore less likely to receive the most they would deserve when compared to men.
So if in the industry everyone tends to get a new job every few years, and on average they tend to make slightly more with each job, and women on average would only push for 90% of what they could get on each iteration, while men are more likely to push for 100% each time, then after a few decades the women would end up well behind the pace.