What is a True Gamer? The Male Gamer Stereotype and the Marginalization of Women in Video Game Culture

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Women and men play video games in approximately equal numbers. Despite this similarity, video gaming is still strongly associated with men. A common justification for this stereotype is that, although women might play games, they should not be considered “true” or “hard-core” gamers because they play more casually and less skillfully compared to their male counterparts. In this contribution, we review the existing literature on gender and gaming to investigate the male gamer stereotype in terms of its accuracy, persistence, effects, and future perspective. We conclude that the stereotype varies in accuracy depending on the definition of “gamer.” We further argue that the persistence of this stereotype can be explained by the fact that almost all professional and highly visible figures in gaming culture are male. On the other hand, female players who achieve a moderate level of competence are rendered invisible or are actively marginalized. We argue that the effects of the male gamer stereotype can be harmful to women, precluding them from the positive outcomes of video game play such as enhanced access to fields of science, technology, and engineering

The gendered nature and malleability of gamer stereotypes

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Mary Ann Liebert via the DOI in this recordData availability: The data sets used in this paper are available at https://osf.io/jfh9b/?view_only=f7de84580b8242e5b965a3b32ecdb6b9. All materials can be found in the online supplement.Video gaming is seen as a male space. Female gamers are seen as atypical, have their competence challenged, and face more harassment than male gamers do. This precarious position is increasingly problematic as video gaming is now one of the most prevalent leisure activities, providing an opportunity to both forge and maintain friendships, and to achieve social status and career opportunities. We argue that the marginalization of female gamers is driven by masculine gamer stereotypes. We investigate the content and gendered nature of gamer stereotypes as well as their malleability in response to exposure to female gamers across two studies (NStudy 1=287; NStudy 2=176). We explore the content of gamer stereotypes and find that they contain both negative aspects, such as lacking social skills, and positive aspects, such as being competent and agentic. Both studies demonstrate that gamer stereotypes are more similar to stereotypes of men and boys than those of women and girls. In Study 2 we test whether exposure to a female gamer can change the negative association between female stereotypes and gamer stereotypes, finding support for this prediction. We conclude that gamer stereotypes are highly gendered but may be malleable: increasing the visibility of female gamers could potentially reduce the incompatibility between femininity and gaming

Student Perceptions of Skills and Attributes Required in Accounting Careers

Prior studies have been conducted to determine the correspondence between the skills and attributes students perceive important to one’s professional accounting career and the level to which those skills and attributes were developed during their academic career. Results obtained indicate a significant difference between students’ perceptions of the relative importance of skills/attributes and the development of these skills/attributes during their academic careers. Many of the skills perceived to be important to the students’ future accounting careers were considered to receive less priority during their studies. Conversely, other skills perceived to be of less importance received greater priority in academic programs

Recruit Smarter - Technical Report

Recruit Smarter trialled four pilot interventions across a range of government departments and private sector organisations. The four interventions included two trials of targeted recruitment via modified language use in job advertisements, a CV de-identification program, and the provision of training to address unconscious bias. The pilot program has found evidence that these interventions are beneficial to improving equity of opportunity for diverse Victorian applicants

Bright days : a monthly of illustrated stories for boys and girls.

https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/childrens_lit_books/1075/thumbnail.jp