Women in Gaming: Facebook’s New Campaign to Solve the Diversity Problem

The social media giant, Facebook recently launched a new campaign that aims to promote and encourage Women in the video game industry.

According to Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, the game industry still has a big diversity problem and this all-new "Women in Gaming” initiative will help solve that problem. The campaign includes a website with videos featuring women in various roles across the industry, including game design, marketing, HR, sales, and more. The lead video features Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg.

"Gaming is one of the best examples of people connecting around their interests, and women have a really important part to play in this industry," Sandberg said.

The Facebook executive also added that the video game industry needs to do more to encourage women to join the industry as part of an effort for games to be a better representative of the global population. Sheryl also presented statistics on how women can make up around half of all gamers worldwide, which includes some of the best female characters like Tracer from Overwatch, Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn, and Chloe and Nadine from Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

"Women only make up 23 percent of the workforce, and women of color are even less represented. Even in this industry, women also face stereotypes and prejudice that hold them back, just like they do in every industry. And when they become the target of online threats, it's even harder to convince young women that Gaming is full of opportunities; and it is an industry that not only values their work--but needs it." Sheryl added.

The Women in Gaming campaign is an effort to build a global community for women in the video game industry to share stories of the challenges they've faced and more about their experiences. Facebook will also be organizing meet-ups for all the women in gaming to come together for support and empowerment. Also, the campaign website will have links to talks from some of the best female game developers such as Brenda Romero and links to research where one can learn more about the facts on women in the video game workplace.