“It’s scary to be a woman in gaming.”
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Two-thirds of female players still report being harassed when playing online.
In a report entitled “Why gaming still has a women problem”, Sky News reflected on the propensity of misogyny and hatred against women in gaming spaces, particularly on Discord and in multiplayer games.
In primary research conducted for the report, tech journalist Mickey Carroll said she was harassed and called a host of slurs simply because her “profile picture showed that [she] was clearly a woman”.
After receiving abuse on Discord “within seconds”, Carroll asked the abuser to justify their position. In response, the male gamer said:
“You’re female. You’re a filthy female. We don’t like females, we like men in here. You’re a slag. You know that, right? Because you’re a fucking female, all females are slags, and you’re expired. You’re a slag on the streets, bruv. Bro, she’s a nonce, she’s a paedophile, she’s a nonce, she loves kids.”
The research – conducted by Bryter’s Jenny McBean – found abuse typically starts off as “sexist comments”, “but it often escalates into something more threatening; rape threats, male gamers saying, ‘I’m going to find out where you live, attack your family and attack you’.”
Of the “around a thousand” female gamers polled across the UK and US, 72 percent reported experiences of online toxicity in 2022, but this fell to 65 percent in 2023.
“It’s the first positive shift that we saw [since research began in 2019]. It’s actually reduced to 65 percent, which is a significant decrease,” McBean explained.
“It’s great, but we can’t just assume everything’s fine now. It’s still two in three women.”
Despite the fall in harassment, 20 percent of women gamers who responded to the survey said they simply choose not to play online due to potential harassment. One in 10 have been threatened with rape.
19-year-old French esports professional Mathilde conurred, saying: “Being a woman in gaming is “scary. You need to have confidence in yourself… if someone jumps on me, I will jump back.”
Stephanie Ijoma says she founded the diversity and inclusion agency NNESAGA in order to dismantle “a system that was against us, and we are doing it”.
“I’m a Black woman and Black women in this space are subject to more abuse than anyone else,” Ijoma said.
Discord told Sky News it takes “immediate action” when harassment is reported, insisting “safety is integrated into every aspect” of its service, including “use a mix of proactive and reactive tools”.
If you have experienced this kind of abuse and are in need support, the Cybersmile Foundation has dedicated tools, including a global support service, to help people deal with abuse in gaming.
