UK Parliament Debates Lack of Women in Video Game Sector
First step towards working on a solution.
Look! Politicians are talking about video games and it's somewhat positive! Last night, the UK House of Commons discussed the lack of women in ICT jobs - including the video games sector - and how to attract more girls into the industry during education.
Labour MP Chi Onwurah kicked off the debate by highlighting that "women make up only 12% of professional engineers and 15% of those applying for computer science degrees... The proportion of computing A-levels taken by women went down from 12% in 2004 to 8% in 2011. There is only one girl for every 11 boys in the average UK A-level computing class."
Conservative MP Justin Tomlinson added that, "in the specific part of the video games industry, only 17% of staff are females and the industry is crying out for more. What we really need is role models to inspire the next generation and address that imbalance." Onwurah said that the figures she has for women in the games industry is even less than that.
"It is certainly the case that the video games industry is a modern one; one would hope that it would be reflective of society, including those who play games, but it is not," Onwurah replied in agreement. "My figures show that only 6% of those who work in ICT in the UK games industry are women, despite the fact that they make up 50% of those who play the games."
While there doesn't seem to be any definitive answers to solve the issue at hand, Conservative MP Elizabeth Truss said that the government is taking some steps towards reinventing ICT classes and making the industry more appealing and accessible for females. "We have been working with the British Computing Society to create a new curriculum that addresses issues such as how to use digital devices, but that also focuses much more on understanding programming and coding," she said.
"We have also recently announced that GCSE computer science will be added to the list of science options in the English baccalaureate. We are, therefore, taking computer science very seriously as a subject. We recognise the importance of computing knowledge and skills for the future of the economy, so we want to raise its quality and profile in schools."
The debate ends all kind of abruptly shortly after that point, with the Conservative Minister not budging much further than her initial comments. But, at the very least, it's an issue that's being taken more seriously by UK politicians, and that's somewhat comforting. Let's hope things move forward soon.
Read the whole debate here.
Labour MP Chi Onwurah kicked off the debate by highlighting that "women make up only 12% of professional engineers and 15% of those applying for computer science degrees... The proportion of computing A-levels taken by women went down from 12% in 2004 to 8% in 2011. There is only one girl for every 11 boys in the average UK A-level computing class."
Conservative MP Justin Tomlinson added that, "in the specific part of the video games industry, only 17% of staff are females and the industry is crying out for more. What we really need is role models to inspire the next generation and address that imbalance." Onwurah said that the figures she has for women in the games industry is even less than that.
"It is certainly the case that the video games industry is a modern one; one would hope that it would be reflective of society, including those who play games, but it is not," Onwurah replied in agreement. "My figures show that only 6% of those who work in ICT in the UK games industry are women, despite the fact that they make up 50% of those who play the games."
While there doesn't seem to be any definitive answers to solve the issue at hand, Conservative MP Elizabeth Truss said that the government is taking some steps towards reinventing ICT classes and making the industry more appealing and accessible for females. "We have been working with the British Computing Society to create a new curriculum that addresses issues such as how to use digital devices, but that also focuses much more on understanding programming and coding," she said.
"We have also recently announced that GCSE computer science will be added to the list of science options in the English baccalaureate. We are, therefore, taking computer science very seriously as a subject. We recognise the importance of computing knowledge and skills for the future of the economy, so we want to raise its quality and profile in schools."
The debate ends all kind of abruptly shortly after that point, with the Conservative Minister not budging much further than her initial comments. But, at the very least, it's an issue that's being taken more seriously by UK politicians, and that's somewhat comforting. Let's hope things move forward soon.
Read the whole debate here.
Comments
ergo 25 Apr 2013 16:50
1/1
Third recession in the last several years and this is what Parliament deems worthy of its time??? WOW. You have a million people on the dole doing *nothing* that are capable of work, and they clown it up with this??? I guess they know their audience...