International Women's Day - A Raptor Perspective
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Following International Women’s Day on 8th March, I thought it’d be a great time to discuss the importance of accessibility for women in the Tech/Games industries. But just as a heads up, I’m only six months into my role and this blog post is informed by my experiences so far!
Though my knowledge as a gamer definitely helped me adjust, it’s thanks to wonderful guidance from the Raptor PR team and others in the industry that I feel I’ve learnt a lot in a short time. I came to the role with a First-Class degree in English Literature and a few internships in PR from differing industries. So though I knew how PR worked, I wasn’t as familiar with the inner workings of Tech and Games PR. I was excited to get stuck in!
But how does being a woman fall into this? Well, at my first industry event, I noticed that the room was around 90% men - something my male colleagues didn’t realise until I commented on it. I had anticipated there being fewer women because I knew the statistics, but it’s a little more daunting in practice, especially when you’re new to it all. There also weren’t many young people at the event in general, making it harder to relate to the people around me. Though it’s good to be pushed outside of your comfort zone sometimes, I think that initiatives to get more young women in the industry are really important in making people feel represented and comfortable.
It just so happened that I was lucky enough to have never faced this particular issue before - at university my coursemates were primarily women, and at my internships most of my colleagues were women. Had I pursued a degree in Engineering, for example, my experience would have differed. But having been one of many at a workplace, when I did face being one of the only women in the room, I felt even more motivated to open discussions about accessibility, and to meet other women like me.
Women in Games is a great example of the wonderful initiatives out there shaping the future of the games industry. They note on their website that this is still one of the most gender imbalanced of all the creative industries. But by building a community and hosting events, they facilitate important conversations and light the way for more women to come. I wholeheartedly support initiatives like this that promote diversity in any form - the industry needs it!
This should also be the case on a recruitment level; one of the things that led me to apply to Raptor PR was because it has a diverse team and it has since been made clear to me that diversity and accessibility is important to the company. I hope that more companies follow suit in a similarly genuine way, rather than a “filling quotas” way.
I look forward to meeting more young women like me.
Clara Vazquez