Gender Differences In Video Games

Although the digital gaming industry is in continuous growth, with an increasing number of gamers around the world, females and males, playing videogames remains a gendered practice (Hayes, 2005) and the video games industry itself does not seem to grow as a more gender-inclusive environment (Chess & Shaw, 2015). According to Mia Consalvo, Canadian researcher in Game studies, in the early 2000’s, it was still a news to the mainstream press that women played games as well as men. Nonetheless, the number of women playing games is steadily rising. Gaming consoles such as Nintendo DS and Wii have brought many females players into the gaming public, as well as mobile and social games designed for iOS, Android devices, and social media platforms

Many theories are based on the types of games that men and women generally play and their preferences, drawing conclusions from characteristics associated to each gender. For example, the fact that women play puzzle games has been associated to the “problem-solving” innate tendency of females. Nevertheless, this interpretation does not take into account the accessibility of games. Girls may play such games because they can be played in a short period of time or because they do not own a gaming console at all. Males, on the other hand, get better access to games. Parents would rather purchase a console for their son, instead of their daughter, because of the bias of gaming as a masculine practice (Margolis & Fisher, 2002; Hayes,

Generally, there is a lack of female characters in games, and most of them are represented as sexualized objects, or in a stereotypical way (e.g. the princess). Female characters are objectified or fetishised, and fulfil the roles associated to feminine skills and features. Also, the market presents a great variety of “masculine” themed games, in which male characters are represented as violent and strong (war, competition, sport games…). This aspect of gaming certainly contributes to be unappealing or offensive to girls, who at this point do not feel welcome to join the game (Bryce & Rutter,