Gaming–online gaming, console gaming, handheld or social media is a medium, one in which women participate in developing, marketing, and playing. It’s also a medium in which women are represented to a smaller degree than men–and in particular, in the games themselves.
Why should we care? We care because gaming is the present and the future of digital media. It is where people interested in digital media are gathered; through gaming some of the most powerful memes and tropes of our culture are shared; gaming is increasingly integrated into marketing, social media, education, events.
That is why the current climate in the gaming world needs to be a concern for women in and interested in media. A recent article in the New York Times detailed the sexual harassment that women may face at the point at which they get too visible in the gaming world.
This needs to change. Women in media are the ones to change it.