Hacking Masculine Cultures - Career Ambitions of Female Young Professionals in a Video Game Company

Women employed in video game companies are facing several barriers regarding equality and career chances. Scholars argue that career development of women is at times hindered because of hegemonic masculinity in organizations, with networks and other social factors playing a more important role than qualifications. This means that women miss out on career opportunities in a thriving and future driving industry. Yet, as gendered working environments are considered to be the result of social construction, they can also be restructured. To explore the drivers of these aspects, we conducted a qualitative field study in a video game company in a large city in Germany to understand what challenges regarding masculinity exist and how they are dealt with. Our lessons learned contribute to the realization of more gender-sensitive working environments in the video game sector and, as a result, of more diverse video games as well. Furthermore, a native English speaker dealt with typos and linguistic infelicities.

[1]  Michelle K. Bothwell,et al.  STEM Women Faculty Struggling for Recognition and Advancement in a “Men’s Club” Culture , 2018 .

[2]  Julian A. Oldmeadow,et al.  Geek or Chic? Emerging Stereotypes of Online Gamers , 2012 .

[3]  Margaret Burnett,et al.  From Gender Biases to Gender-Inclusive Design: An Empirical Investigation , 2019, CHI.

[4]  Thorsten Quandt,et al.  Unpopular, Overweight, and Socially Inept: Reconsidering the Stereotype of Online Gamers , 2014, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[5]  J. Lofland,et al.  Analyzing Social Settings , 1971 .

[6]  Seonaidh McDonald,et al.  Studying actions in context: a qualitative shadowing method for organizational research , 2005 .

[7]  R. Connell,et al.  Hegemonic Masculinity , 2005 .

[8]  Eileen M. Trauth,et al.  Breaking and entering the male domain. Women in the IT industry , 2001, SIGCPR '01.

[9]  J. Prescott,et al.  The experiences of women working in the computer games industry: an in-depth qualitative study , 2014 .

[10]  H. Bowles.  Psychological Perspectives on Gender in Negotiation , 2012 .

[11]  R. Varma.  Women in Computing: The Role of Geek Culture , 2007 .

[12]  Barbara Czarniawska.  A Narrative Approach to Organization Studies , 1998 .

[13]  J. Lorber.  Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics , 1998 .

[14]  Hans Lundkvist.  Gender Aware Employer Branding: How to Become Authentic, Unique and Attractive , 2015 .

[15]  Nicola Marsden,et al.  Personas and Identity: Looking at Multiple Identities to Inform the Construction of Personas , 2019, CHI.

[16]  C. Farquhar,et al.  Are focus groups suitable for 'sensitive' topics? , 1999 .

[17]  Jan Bogg,et al.  Segregation in a Male-Dominated Industry: Women Working in the Computer Games Industry , 2011 .

[18]  J. Creswell,et al.  Qualitative Research Designs , 2007 .

[19]  Lynette Kvasny,et al.  Recruitment is never enough: retention of women and minorities in the IT workplace , 2004, SIGMIS CPR '04.

[20]  Stefanie Beninger,et al.  Book Review: Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men , 2019, Journal of Macromarketing.

[21]  Alexis Hope,et al.  A Feminist HCI Approach to Designing Postpartum Technologies: "When I first saw a breast pump I was wondering if it was a joke" , 2016, CHI.

[22]  A. Meltzoff,et al.  Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: increasing girls’ interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes , 2015, Front. Psychol..

[23]  Lotte Vermeulen,et al.  Defining gamertum: a gendered identity debate in digital game culture , 2016 .

[24]  Laura E Hirshfield.  "She Won’t Make Me Feel Dumb”: Identity Threat in a Male-Dominated Discipline , 2010 .

[25]  Steven p. Schacht,et al.  MISOGYNY ON AND OFF THE “PITCH” , 1996 .

[26]  V. Braun,et al.  Using thematic analysis in psychology , 2006 .

[27]  J. Prescott,et al.  The gendered identity of women in the games industry , 2013, Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture.

[28]  Cliff Cheng.  Masculinities in Organizations , 1996 .

[29]  Nathan Ensmenger,et al.  The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise , 2010 .

[30]  Kim Etherington,et al.  Becoming a Reflexive Researcher - Using Our Selves in Research , 2004 .

[31]  D. Khor,et al.  “Doing Gender” , 2007 .

[32]  Shaowen Bardzell,et al.  Feminist HCI: taking stock and outlining an agenda for design , 2010, CHI.

[33]  Michele D. Dickey.  Girl gamers: the controversy of girl games and the relevance of female-oriented game design for instructional design , 2006, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[34]  Craig J. Forsyth,et al.  Dogfighting: Symbolic Expression and Validation of Masculinity , 1998 .

[35]  James A. Landay,et al.  Gender-Inclusive Design: Sense of Belonging and Bias in Web Interfaces , 2018, CHI.

[36]  T. Kupers.  Toxic masculinity as a barrier to mental health treatment in prison. , 2005, Journal of clinical psychology.

[37]  Christopher A. Paul,et al.  Welcome to the discourse of the real: Constituting the boundaries of games and players , 2013, FDG.

[38]  T. Busch.  Gender Differences in Self-Efficacy and Attitudes toward Computers , 1995 .

[39]  Laurie Cohen,et al.  Spaces that Matter: Gender Performativity and Organizational Space , 2010 .

[40]  Aphra Kerr,et al.  The Business and Culture of Digital Games: Gamework and Gameplay , 2006 .

[41]  C. Steele,et al.  Ambient belonging: how stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. , 2009, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[42]  W. Courtenay.  Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's well-being: a theory of gender and health. , 2000, Social science & medicine.

[43]  F. Deutsch.  Undoing Gender , 2007 .

[44]  C. Herring.  Does Diversity Pay?: Race, Gender, and the Business Case for Diversity , 2009 .

[45]  R. Edwards,et al.  Ethics and feminist research: theory and practice , 2012 .

[46]  David L. Collinson,et al.  Men and masculinities in work, organizations and management , 2005 .

[47]  Jennifer Ann Rode,et al.  Does Technology Have Race? , 2016, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[48]  Cherie Todd.  COMMENTARY: GamerGate and Resistance to the Diversification of Gaming Culture , 2015 .

[49]  Andrei Cimpian,et al.  Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines , 2015, Science.

[50]  Lauren Alfrey,et al.  Gender-Fluid Geek Girls , 2017 .

[51]  Michael Schmalz,et al.  Limitation to Innovation in the North American Console Video Game Industry 2001-2013: A Critical Analysis , 2015 .

[52]  Steve Jacobs.  Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming , 2014 .

[53]  Ian Alexander,et al.  Handbook of Action Research Participative Inquiry and Practice , 2001, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[54]  Allan Fisher,et al.  Unlocking the Clubhouse : Women in Computing by Allan Fisher , 2015 .

[55]  D. Clandinin,et al.  Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research , 1999 .

[56]  Volker Wulf,et al.  'On the ground' in Sidi Bouzid: investigating social media use during the tunisian revolution , 2013, CSCW.

[57]  Marc J. Natale.  The effect of a male-oriented computer gaming culture on careers in the computer industry , 2002, CSOC.

[58]  Y. Benschop,et al.  Practising Gender When Networking: The Case of University–Industry Innovation Projects , 2015 .

[59]  Candace L. Kemp,et al.  Intersections of age and masculinities in the information technology industry , 2007, Ageing and Society.

[60]  A. Bandura.  Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency , 2024, Psihologìâ ì suspìlʹstvo.

[61]  L. Lindsey.  The Sociology of Gender Theoretical Perspectives and Feminist Frameworks , 2015 .

[62]  P. Maguire.  Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach , 1987 .

[63]  Silvia Gherardi,et al.  Gender, symbolism and organizational cultures , 1995 .

[64]  Yasmin B. Kafai,et al.  Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming , 2008 .

[65]  Barbara Simpson,et al.  Shadowing research in organizations: the methodological debates , 2014 .

[66]  Mary E. Piorun,et al.  Employee onboarding: identification of best practices in ACRL libraries , 2013 .

[67]  Crystle Martin,et al.  Gendered Barriers to Participation in Gaming Culture , 2015, GenderIT.

[68]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Retaining Women in Technology , 2018, 2018 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC).

[69]  Christina Mörtberg,et al.  Between Need and Desire , 2012 .

[70]  Elena Gorbacheva,et al.  Directions for research on gender imbalance in the IT profession , 2018, EJIS.

[71]  S. Chess,et al.  A Conspiracy of Fishes, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying About #GamerGate and Embrace Hegemonic Masculinity , 2015 .

[72]  Mary Crawford,et al.  Gender and humor in social context , 2003 .

[73]  Joan Acker,et al.  Inequality Regimes , 2006 .

[74]  Ramon Hinojosa,et al.  Doing Hegemony: Military, Men, and Constructing a Hegemonic Masculinity , 2010 .

[75]  Konstantin Aal,et al.  Challenges and lessons learned by applying living labs in gender and IT contexts , 2018, GenderIT.

[76]  Mia Consalvo,et al.  Confronting Toxic Gamer Culture: A Challenge for Feminist Game Studies Scholars , 2012 .

[77]  Acknowledging the female archetype: women managers’ narratives of gender , 2000 .

[78]  Orit Hazzan,et al.  Empower Gender Diversity with Agile Software Development , 2006 .

[79]  Benjamin Paaßen,et al.  What is a True Gamer? The Male Gamer Stereotype and the Marginalization of Women in Video Game Culture , 2017 .

[80]  Marie-Josée Legault,et al.  Women’s Experiences on the Path to a Career in Game Development , 2018 .

[81]  Daniela Karin Rosner,et al.  Hacking Culture, Not Devices: Access and Recognition in Feminist Hackerspaces , 2015, CSCW.

[82]  H. Thornham.  “It's A Boy Thing” , 2008 .

[83]  Adrienne Shaw,et al.  Do you identify as a gamer? Gender, race, sexuality, and gamer identity , 2012, New Media Soc..

[84]  John Kirriemuir,et al.  Literature Review in Games and Learning , 2004 .

[85]  Elisabeth K. Kelan.  Gender Logic and (Un)doing Gender at Work , 2010 .

[86]  Laurie A. Rudman,et al.  Backlash effects for disconfirming gender stereotypes in organizations , 2008 .