Naomi Lackaff, Head of Partnerships at Shrapnel, the moddable AAA first-person shooter game, said: “Having spent a career in tech I am often one of very few women on my team. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to support women in many areas of my life. I have been incredibly fortunate in the roughly twenty years of my career to work with some of the smartest people around, and most of them have been men of impeccable character. Even so, they don’t always see what I see. How can they? They don’t share the lived experiences of the women they work with. What they do, though, is ask questions, and stay open to the answers.
There are some very simple things any company can do to support and reinforce gender equity:
Pay women the same salary for the same work; When presented with candidates of equal caliber, hire the woman; Recognize that good ideas can come from anyone, and actively seek input from all members of the team; Mentor women in roles more traditionally dominated by men.
I could make emotional appeals all day about the importance of diversity and gender equity, but this is business. Business is ultimately about the bottom line, and diverse teams make more money. Countless studies have shown that companies committed to a diverse workforce, and fostering an environment of long-term support and career development for employees of all educational levels and backgrounds, encourage higher productivity and higher quality output. If game makers specifically want to capture the largest available market of players, they must employ a diversity of perspectives on their team.”
