Did you know that Maxis’ Lucy Bradshaw was the only female executive to present anything during the E3 press conferences? In an industry already under scrutiny for a number of gender-related issues, one might wonder what that says about games. However, Bradshaw herself is quite optimistic, believing more women are coming and that, ultimately, they’ll be good for business.
“I see the people who are coming out of the college programmes, with these very multi-faceted multimedia entertainment degrees, are much more diverse,” she told Videogamer. “So our population within EA is starting to get a little bit more gender balanced, but not entirely and I would love to see even more so.
“First of all, women are just good for business. If you read any book around women who have leadership roles in businesses, ultimately those businesses are doing better. But I think you have a different perspective when you have a different mix behind the scenes, making the games and everything, and I think it can really open up different kind of innovations, different features, and different ways in which you design games too.
“So it’s going to be a while before we ever see a kind of balance to a greater degree, but I am happy to say there’s a lot of opportunities in the industry.”
Diversity can only ever be a good thing, since it’ll always expand the idea pool and bring previously unseen perspectives. Bradshaw’s got the right idea, and a pleasantly positive outlook on issues that, lately, have been mired down in negativity.
