Today we’ve been digging deeper into the gender gap in the game industry in Sweden and found the following statistics regarding 2018:
Number of employees in the game development market in Sweden by gender:
Women: 1699
Men: 6221
As you can see, there is a huge difference. At a time like this, we all want results and already in the year 2020. As time passes by, the challenges increase so time is a luxury we do not have.
Do the companies really want to solve the gender gap?
How are the recruiters and company decision-makers taking action?
Where are the junior positions?
Are there any part-time jobs? How many are there?
Are female entrepreneurs getting funding, investment, or grants?
We already know the answers to these questions but we want you to think about them.
We can tell you right off the bat that there are no junior positions nor remote jobs. There are either internships without pay (counted with the fingers of one hand) or jobs where they require 2-3 years of experience. That is a ridiculous requirement when we all see that thousands of women are not getting a foot into the job market so of course, they do not have the experience and they never will unless they work as a freelancer or have their own business. But of course, that also depends on how good they are in marketing and sales as well. And we all know how hard it is for a startup to succeed and how tough the market is towards women.
Time goes by and nothing is being changed.
People: you have to understand that by creating lots of online courses does not in itself solve the gap. We need more job openings, fewer requirements, and a change of mindset.
As long as companies go on with their 3-year experience requirement for everybody when there is a global problem with the gender gap, women will never get into the job market. It is simple, they never even got a foot in so even less have 3 years of experience working for an agency and even less have shipped some games. Plus the cv scanners look for achievements. This is even more ridiculous. How much do you think these thousands of women have succeeded in achieving when they have been turned down who knows how many times when looking for a job? Get real!
Here is another article regarding 2018 and 2019:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-09-16-swedish-games-industry-generated-1-87bn-in-2018-employs-almost-8-000-people
And here comes another:
I guess you get the point by now. This is very irritating for us women and female entrepreneurs.
By the way, entrepreneurs are very important for countries. We are the ones that help development and innovation.
We will continue posting statistics. For those who are interested in the statistics, we encourage you to dig deeper and even look into what percentage of the women are foreigners, what are their ages, and why they are being turned down. How is the recruitment process being handled? Who are the decision-makers? What is being done to change this?
If the governments want to extend the time for retirement they need to first solve how people will find work because for us women this change means we will have to struggle more years to get into the job market with the same results we have today: zero!. Take a look at the numbers shown in the statistics. We at Emerging Technologies Sweden understand the impact.
Remote work will grow worldwide and we say this as visionaries that we are. It will happen and it makes sense but it will take a long time for Sweden to change its mindset and offer remote work as an option for the women that are struggling 200% to get into a job market that is clearly not putting equality as a priority. So if the employers cannot or will not offer junior positions for example, then there should be recruitment agencies offering remote work for these people to work for companies that are more open-minded and maybe are based outside Sweden. Either one way or the other you have to solve the problem.
The fight for equality will get tougher and there is no question about it.
So for the business owners, we have a message: stop bragging about the numbers and money you earn. When you build your teams, think about equality. Think about giving people the possibility of growth because this is when innovation takes place. So far, you’ve been playing with the same rules for years. It’s time for a change. Furthermore, the lifetime of a company is shorter than before so without innovation, you will not survive.
So instead of thinking why you shouldn’t select your female candidates, think why you should. Think of the value they can bring and how your company can deliver more value to the world. Shift your mindset to a positive one.
Remember that women are also your customers. They buy games for their kids, etc. But among the customers, you don’t only have moms, you have women of all ages. They could just choose to buy from another company, one that puts equality as a top priority. In short, you could lose your customers. Furthermore, many countries have more women than men. So just imagine what this would mean for your business! The world keeps moving faster and faster and to our eyes, there is no doubt where the talent will go. Is it good for Sweden if the talent goes elsewhere?
This is your opportunity to make a difference! You know pretty well that the buyers have more power than before so if you think that the gender gap does not affect you, think again!
You might not have women as your employees but you do have them as your customers and you can lose them in a blink of an eye. Neither the millions you spend in advertisements nor the best team in the world can help you in a case like this. And your competitors will absolutely take the upper hand (faster than you think and they are just around the corner) and welcome your customers with open arms! Once you lose your customers, it will take a whole lot of work and millions of dollars to get them back. All the money, time, and resources it took you to get your customers will be gone with the wind. =)
It’s wake up time! The competition is fierce, not only for the candidates but also for the companies.
You might have missed it but we haven’t. The competition is growing exponentially and we know where the talent will be!
Like one of our mentors says: “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you keep getting what you always got”. He also adds that “We cannot change what happens to us, what we can change is how we respond to what happens to us”.
Applying the principles that we’ve learned to this case means that we, the people, have to respond in another way.
We wrote this article to raise awareness. We also wanted to point out that when companies base their decisions on the years of experience that the candidates have, their biased systems, and the automatic templates for responses to the candidates, they collaborate in making the gender gap bigger. They send out a message which is the same message these companies send as well. Because the ones that have 2-3 years of experience are the people that already have a job, for example, the 6000 men in the game industry. These are the ones that not only have 2-3-years of experience and have shipped games, but also the ones that most probably have changed jobs during the years for others that offered better benefits. These are the people that these systems are helping. It is a small population that is continuously circulating.
If you are a job seeker you have received through the years an answer that says that they have received a lot of applications and have gone forward with other candidates. Most probably they haven’t even taken the time to go through your application thanks to the automation systems.
We do not have a normal situation, we have a global gender gap. When the situations are not normal, you can not base your decisions on a situation that does not exist. Women and men are not getting equal job opportunities nor the possibility of growing. Furthermore, we all have LinkedIn and are learning a faster pace than before. When these companies base their decisions on the years of experience that people have, they show they have limiting beliefs. The belief that only those that have experience can do the job when we all know that we are growing on a daily basis.
What brought us to the gender gap that we have today is also the lack of good leadership which resulted in bad decisions. We pointed out above many of the things that should be in place already but are not.
The solution is us, people. We are the ones that have to respond in a different way to this situation. If this has happened so far, it’s because we have been letting it happen. So our response must change and the decision-makers that are stuck with their beliefs will have to change as the result of our change otherwise their companies will be disrupted.
There is no doubt where the world is going since we will soon have more users online, more elders in the job market, and the new generations. It’s already looking pretty crowded. So being inclusive will be more important than ever before and those companies that do not understand this will learn it the hard way. It’s also clear that we will all have to work together while we continue to be original. We all have talents. In the new world that we live today, there is no place for selfishness.
To round this up, we see these problems in other industries as well. Now we are not going to focus on complaints, nor wait for people to change, nor wait for companies to change. We are changing our response and we are moving forward with a growth mindset, innovative ideas, and action. Yes, action!
This article belongs to the author Veronica Chiaravalli. It is the result of her research. Please notice that only a small part of her research has been shared.