Getting Girls Into Games

In the article Getting Girls Into Games, Education Week writer Katie Ash notes the relationship between digital gaming and STEM subjects in school. Both have traditionally been disproportionately filled by boys and men. Today there are an increasing number of girls and women interested in STEM subjects and gaming. Although more girls are playing games, few are designing them. In order to encourage this growth researchers have been studying “what aspects of gaming engage girls” (Ash, 2009, para1). They have found that in general boys and girls play for different reasons. Girls tend to enjoy games they see a purpose in. For example they play to enjoy a social component. Boys tend not to need this as strongly. Girls also enjoy games with storylines and games that allow for more interaction with character and environment. Boys tend to be drawn to games where the emphasis is more on violence.

Efforts are being made to include girls within the gaming community in the hopes that this will draw them into STEM fields. Jill Denner, a senior research associate for the Scotts Valley California based ETR Associates, has created Girl Game Company. ETR is a non-profit organization that aims to promote health and education within communities. Girl Game Company works in schools throughout San Francisco as an after school program that simulates the experiences of working for a game company. Carl Pennypacker is an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley. He created Universe Quest Game, also an after school program that helps middle aged girls create games.

I think their work is important. We need balance and diversity within our careers and schools not simply to achieve equality in numbers between male and female bodies, but because of what both men and women have to contribute. Of concern to me though was a quote by Denner: “[Middle School] is a critical period for identity formation, so catching them while they’re making decisions about classes and careers, and who they are, is important, especially for catching people who aren’t going to naturally choose that path” (para 9). It is important regardless of gender to expose children and young adults to different career possibilities, but I do not believe this should be done at the expense of what they would “naturally choose”. Whether coercion takes place while directing students away from fields and academic subjects, or in an effort to steer them into fields and academic subjects, coercion is coercion. It is not our job as educators and parents to form children’s identities for them, but rather to value the gifts they already have and support them in this process. There should be less concern about coercing girls into gaming, and more concern about what they naturally want to do. Perhaps their own inclinations are enough, and left to their own inclinations they could find a new use for the technology and academic subjects we currently employ for games boys are interested in.

Ash, K. (2009, September 23). Getting Girls Into Games. Education Week: Digital Directions. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/09/23/01girlsgames.h03.html?qs=technology+diversity