Bonnie Ross is the current head of 343 Industries, the studio that has taken over the beloved Halo franchise for Microsoft. She’s been opening up a lot more over the past several weeks for what’s ahead, including a confirmation that Halo Infinite will be at E3 this year, though her latest topic of discussion revolves around a much bigger picture than one game series.
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Gender politics have always been a topic of conversation, and for good reason. Women weren’t always afforded the right to work, nor the same respect as their male counterparts in a professional workplace. Though times have certainly changed in a lot of areas, that doesn’t mean that all previous bias has gone away and that’s exactly what Ross spoke about when she sat down with CBS News during a recent 60 Minutes segment.
Ross of course talked about being the change she wants to see, particularly when discussing her own Halo team:
“Boys and men, the numbers are moving up. We are getting a lot more into computer science. But with women and girls, it’s going down,” she mentioned. “In many times there’s not even a way where I could bring a woman into a specific job because the candidates are just not there.”
But she’s not saying that there are no opportunities. In fact, she even spoke about the current tech industry and the incredibly high demand for women in that particular field. She added
“These women, basically they open every door because we all want them, and there’s so few of them, and they’re amazingly talented. There’s just not that many of them.”
She’s not the only person in the industry talking about encouraging more women to enter into this industry, especially on the Computer Science and development side of the spectrum. The famed Girls Who Game program constantly shows young girls that there are ways to achieve their dreams, in addition to numerous other opportunities that are finally being given a spotlight.
Ross added, “Research that we’ve done at Microsoft of the girls we’ve talked to, 91% of them feel that they are creative, they identify with being creative. But when asked about computer science, they don’t see computer science as creative. And so I think that we do need to connect the dots. Because it is incredibly creative, it’s just that we’re not doing a good job of showing them what they can do with it.”
I remember when I was going to college back in early 2000, I dabbled in the thought of computer science but (and this is just my own personal experience) I was pressured on pretty much all sides that this was a “silly” field for me to consider and that I should go for something more stable and with more women. To see so many companies looking to inspire and be more inclusive in a truly open way is awesome and something I wish I had when I was going to college.
Thoughts on Ross’s thoughts on women in gaming and her passion to inspire? Sound off in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy.
Thanks, GameSpot!
