Promote the role of women in the eSports sector. The sector has an opportunity, boys and girls should play the same video games from an early age and parents should also choose to give a console to a girl in a natural way because if they don’t, “girls can be isolated,” he explains. the COO and co-founder of Giants Gaming and Good Game Group, who argues that “the industry needs women in all aspects”.
Women reach 38% of senior management in Spain, but the global quota stagnates
Question: You are an entrepreneur. Does creating your own company avoid facing some barriers?
Answer: I am an entrepreneur and businesswoman. We always have barriers. In my case, I have never had salary because I have always applied equality policies in my companies. But I have faced other barriers, those of the sectors, since my companies are part of an ecosystem led mainly by men where products for men are created and you have to share your experience in an ecosystem of men. All this means that you have to make more noise and be more significant to propose your opinion. The woman has a different emotional profile. The IT, technology and eSports sector is dominated mainly by men.
“The IT, technology and eSports sector is dominated mainly by men, so women have to make more noise”
Q.: Are there more women in positions of power in the field of eSports compared to traditional sports?
R.: No. Possibly less. It is a very young ecosystem that belongs to the video game industry, created by men, where there are more and more women, but we are not enough.
Q.: What can companies do to make women in management positions visible?
R.: You have to apply justice, be just as fair and give them the same opportunities. I’m surprised this hasn’t happened yet. In eSports we start from examples of equality, but much remains to be done in the competitive environment. We cannot do it only the teams, but the entire industry and society.
Q.: Is there more equality and diversity in the eSports sector?
R.: In the business environment, it is possible. But for the players, no. It is a sector that is led by young people and there is social justice, but in the case of gamers there is work to be done and ensure that there are more women who can spend more time playing competitive video games. But you have to make it visible with safe spaces.
Q.: Do eSports reproduce the machismo of traditional sports?
R.: No. There are very few players and we cannot see it because many of them do not get paid, being a sector amateur.
Q.: How can eSports not reproduce the machismo of the sports sector? streaming?
R.: Everything that happens behind the anonymity of a Twitter account cannot be controlled, just report, ignore and move on. We can support all the girls who are bullied and create spaces to continue enjoying the competitive video game and that they can have fun playing or watching it. To the streamers you have to denounce them socially. There are always fools. It is unfortunate that we have to live horrific situations with people so young and with so much power of communication, which, at the same time, reaches even younger people. It must be denounced and isolated.
“It is unfortunate that we have to live horrific situations in people so young and with so much power of communication”
Q.: Does it make sense that there are male and female teams in eSports?
R.: It is the eternal question. Hopefully not, because eSports are 100% inclusive. no category as per, but due to the number of players and the harassment they have suffered on the server after being anonymous, women’s competitions have been proposed where security spaces are provided to be able to enjoy the game and the competition. Many girls who want to play have to change the nick and put it masculine, because that’s how they play comfortably, they become invisible and it’s a shame.
Q.: From a symbolic point of view, does the gaming And do eSports have a particularly relevant role in the field of female empowerment?
R.: There is an opportunity. Playing video games is fun and competing is even more. Why won’t it be the same? Why don’t we encourage girls to play from a young age? Teamwork and problem solving must be encouraged. Boys and girls have to play the same video games when they are little and not different games. It would be a very valid tool to promote technological careers in girls. Presumably, video games are one of the first approaches an eight or nine year old has with technology. And that happens with children, when giving them a console. But in girls, no. Parents don’t naturally offer the option of gifting a console and this can isolate girls at any given time. Clubs can carry out projects to work on equality and visibility dynamics, but there is a lot of work to be done. From an economic point of view, if we focus on it, which should not be the case for social justice, the industry needs women in all aspects.
“eSports are 100% inclusive”
Q.: Is it easier to promote equality in a small company than a large corporation?
R.: The small ones have less means, but they must have a lot of desire and be gender sensitive with people who are gender sensitive. Large companies have more resources to implement measures and promote professional growth, but the reality is that it is a matter of gender sensitivity in the management of companies.
Q.: What virtues does a management team made up only of men lose?
R.: The vision of half the world’s population and a different way of understanding how problems are solved. Diversity in all aspects provides differential value compared to companies that only think from the point of view of a single gender.