Game design drawing few female students

Posted on 19. Apr, 2010 by David White in Biz/Tech

DAN BLACKWELL
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

Despite growing numbers of women players, there are no female applicants for the fall video game programming course, co-ordinator Rob Robson said.
“Why don’t they want to come? It beats me,” said Robson.  “We’re quite happy to see them, but they don’t want to come.”
Only three of 95 Humber video game programming students are women despite a 2009 Entertainment Software Association of Canada survey found 39 per cent of Canadian gamers are female.
Computer programming instructor Lynda Hausman said the lack of women students is discouraging, but not unique to Humber.
“Not just computer science, or game programming, but the whole sciences end of things tends to be male dominated,” she said.
For third-year student Stefania Sicilia video game programming came naturally, despite being the only woman in this year’s graduating class.
“I grew up with games, I would play a lot with my brother and sister,” she said.
While she admits her family was skeptical of her decision to enter the video game program, she said she hasn’t had a tough time as the only woman in her class.
“I thought it would be weird at first, but it’s actually pretty normal,” Sicilia said.
“I think it’s becoming more mainstream.”
Hausman said it could be advantageous to be a woman in the industry.
“Any medium to large sized company is looking at trying to keep equity,” she said.
Although Sicilia aims to find a job as a game-play programmer, she said she doesn’t want to be hired just because she’s a woman.
“Most of the time they say it’s easier for a girl to get into the industry,” she said.
“But I would rather be hired if I had the ability.”
Hausman said Sicilia is a standout student and adds a unique element to the program.
“She’s incredible, she’s very, very artistic as well as being a whiz at programming,” Hausman said.
“Certainly the girls that we graduate will be well received in the marketplace.
“They’ll be a good advertisement for Humber, as well as the program.”