Facebook Launches Women In Gaming Initiative

Facebook has launched an initiative with the explicit goal of getting more women involved in video game development.

The social media giant wants to encourage women in the field by leveraging community connections and shining the spotlight on success stories. The company seeks to address the fact that women, and especially women of color, are underrepresented in the games industry and wants to support women interested in breaking into the field.

Part of this initiative is a series of videos from women creators in the industry using the #SheTalksGames hashtag. So far, twenty videos have been released, with an intention to release one hundred within the month. The video series interview women in various roles in the gaming industry, including executives, human resources, art, programming, design, and more

Facebook is also partnering with other organizations such as Women in Games and the European Women in Games conference to help women in the industry at video game conferences and events by providing travel and accommodation support, as well as providing resources for talks and research.

[Source: Gamasutra]

 

Our Take
I am glad that Facebook is taking on this initiative and it is a positive use of social media. While there are a lot of people who are going to pretend to sound pseudo-intellectual by parroting "Well just hire the best person for the job!" it probably helps to have multiple options for the best person for the job by encouraging all types and kinds of people to pursue their interests. Letting established biases based on whatever dictate an entire industry is, at best, asinine.