Girls Make Games Fostering Girls Interest in Game Design and Engineering and the Continuous Struggle to Close the Gender Gap in the Tech Industry

​According to the ESA, the  expected that the world wide revenue for the Gaming Industry will reach $90 Billion.  The constituency for that industry is fairly divided between the sexes, but women only make up approximately 12% of the workers in that industry. 

​"This is a problem [studios] are
 facing every day — they want a 
 diverse workforce, they want
 more ideas and more voice,
 and this is how they're going
 to get it."

​Girls Make Games, whose headquarters are based in San Jose, is an educational camp geared at fostering girls' interest in game design and engineering.  Founder, Laila Shabir launched Girls Make Games when she herself had issues with recruitment for her own studio.  
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At Girls Make Games, students learn different programs in the industry, get to be among other girls with the same interest, are also exposed to professional from the tech industry and receive guidance from mentors.  

​The gaming industry is not only male dominated but has gained a reputation for having a "bro" culture that extends beyond designers and engineers but stigmatizes the women and girls who consume that culture.  As a whole women are under represented in the Tech Industry and it has received criticism for their lack of diversity in general.  
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In an article from the Guardian last year, Silicon Valley is Cool and Powerful. But Where Are All the Women? Caroline Simard the research director at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford was consulted about what was happening with what women were experiencing in the industry.  There is a correlation between the number of women within the industry and the sexist behavior that is flourishing.  "Because in tech you have so few women to begin with, then that really reinforces these power dynamics between men and women."  This is something that women within the Tech industry understand if not experience first hand.  That being said the challenge then becomes how to implement more women into the industry when the discrimination against women is often times the deterrence? 
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I got a harassing email today, and decided to respond with this letter. Feel free to RT. pic.twitter.com/ut96HqxkCJ

— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) August 27, 2014

Tweet from Brianna Wu, Head Development at Giant SpaceKat and her response to a threat she received. 

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"Because in tech you have so few women to begin with, then that really reinforces these power dynamics between men and women."  This is something that women within the Tech industry understand if not experience first hand.  That being said the challenge then becomes how to implement more women into the industry when the discrimination against women is often times the deterrence? ​

​And that is where organizations like Girls Make Games comes in.  These organizations not only create spaces where girls and or minorities feel comfortable but in the building of these new communities, slowly but surely shift how these groups are viewed within the industry.  Below are great resources whose goals are to foster the interest of girls and minority groups.
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