This Christmas, like millions of other parents, I bought my two children, a boyand a girl, a popular home video game system. I thought they could share it andwhen asked if this was OK with them, they replied, “Sure mom, that would begreat.” So, we planned on installing the little goody onto the TV in thefamily room, so that both kids would have an equal chance to play. So, “Whatthen?” you may be asking is the problem. The problem arose when we went toshop for games for the system.
They weren’t hard to find. They were in all thelocal toy stores and Walmart and Kmart too! But, there weren’t any for girls!I looked high and low and came up empty handed. Why was this happening? Surely,girls must want to play video games as much as boys do! Why then, aren’t gamemanufacturers producing any video games that feature girls as the maincharacter? On a recent trip to our local Walmart store, I found over two hundredvideo game titles, yes I counted, for our game system, but of these only two hadfemale main characters. One of them was, you guessed it, Barbie! The other onewas a female warrior dressed in a scantily clad leather outfit. I’m prettysure the latter was designed for young men, and not for young girls.
Surely, abig retailer, like Toys-R-Us would have more of a selection. So, off I went onmy merry way only to be once again disappointed. Toys-R-Us had over 300 titlesin stock for our game system and only the same two titles I found at Walmartwere available there with one new addition, which was the Spice Girls CD. It’sprice had been reduced, so I guessed it was left over from last year when theSpice Girls used to be popular. I ended up purchasing 4 games for my kids toplay.
I found a few with cartoon characters as lead characters, that I feltwould be appropriate for kids. I bought Rugrats, Loony Tunes, Grand Turismo(race cars), and Tetras (puzzle). All, except the puzzle game, had malecharacters in the lead, but at least these were rated as non-violent. After somecareful research, I found that video games are a 7 billion dollar a yearindustry that out surpasses even the movie industry by 2 billion dollars eachyear ( 2 ).
Mostly, these games are being sold to boys and young men. Girlscurrently represent only about 20 percent of the market, having been pretty muchwritten off by important manufacturers like, Hasbro, Sony, and Sega ( 3 ). Girlshave extensive buying power though, nearly 84 billion dollars annually, and over6 million of them live in households with gaming systems ( 3 ). From ages, 6 to10, girls play video games as much and as often as boys in that same agebracket, and one survey reports that if there were more games out there thatthey enjoyed, 85 percent of girls surveyed would use their gaming systems more (1 ). Girls don’t seem to like the same kinds of games boys do. Instead of theviolent, time-limited games boys go for, the girls like games that offer strongnarratives, interaction, and creativity.
It’s not enough to simply convert orreplace existing software for girls; the basic structure should be changed. A1995 survey in Children’s Software Review found only 28 of the 344 games withfemale characters in leading roles ( 3 ), proof that few producers have createdgames exclusively for girls. I believe this is largely so, due to the maledominance in the whole computer and technological industry. Males are turningout a product for other males. Then why aren’t women out there designing aproduct girls will enjoy? Some are trying, but I have found it a catch-22situation.
Men are leading the technology industry because they are the onesinviting other males to join their ranks by making only games geared towardsboys and young men. Girls are less likely to deem this area as fun and invitingand thus, turn their attention to other areas of study once college bound. Somecompanies are beginning to look for ways to encourage girls to get more involvedin information technology. Girl Tech is one such group, in hopes of reaching 3.
4million Girl Scouts, they are sponsoring a technology merit-badge program (3 ).Efforts like this must continue, though more immediate measures need to be takenin order for girls to become technologically proficient. If for no other reasonthan for an increase in earning potential, girls must learn to use and keep upwith the technology around them. Not developing video games for girls, seems tobe a classic example of symbolic annihilation ( 4 ).
That is, the media hastraditionally ignored women. In this case, even though girls have money tospend, their needs still aren’t being met. With the amount of time childrenspend playing video games each week, one study says as much as 4 hours by boysand at least 2 hours by girls, what kind of message are we giving our kids ( 2)? I know it can’t be positive. I really hadn’t realized the bias towardsgirls in the toy department. This has really opened my eyes as a consumer! I aminterested on my next trip to the toy store , to find out if other areas of thestore are as biased as the video game department.
It’s already evident thatthere is a division of boy isles and girl isles. My children have pointed thisout many of time with cries of, “I want to go to the girl isle!” from mydaughter and the opposite from my son. What is important here is that, I am atleast aware of the problem now. I wonder how many other mothers with daughtersare aware of what is available to their daughters as consumers.
It really isdisturbing when you think about it.
