I was going to rewrite my response, since it's so long. BUT I'm majorly sleep-deprived, and can no longer form that many coherent thoughts. So here it is, uncut. If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, read the first two paragraphs and the last one.
I don't know anything about jobs in gaming...but I was a physics major, so I can tell you what that was like.
I heard lots of "you can be whatever you want to be" stuff growing up in the seventies and eighties. I loved science and math, so I wanted to be a scientist. Well, apparently no one really meant it. In high school, I got a lot of, "you want to be a physicist?" responses. It was suggested to me that biology (or another life science) would be a better choice; never mind that I loved physics and had only a passing interest in bio. I had to work twice as hard as the guys to be taken seriously in high school by many people. Just being really good wasn't enough; even National Merit wasn't enough. I was also told, "female math whizzes aren't normal." That's a direct quotation. And that despite the fact that I placed in the top ten in the county in MathCounts, and my team placed fourth in our large state. It was uncomfortable. I was under the microscope, and I drew a lot of attention.
In many ways, college was worse. There was one other woman in my class for the three classes in my sophomore-level series. In my electronics lab, there were two other women. Other than that, I was the only woman. In calculus, there were no more than four of us, even though we usually had more than twenty in a class.
And the physics program itself? Two other female students, one undergrad about to graduate and one grad student, and one female teacher. ONE...and she only taught the sophomore-level labs.
This may not sound like a big deal, but think about it. Do you know how awkward it is to get together with classmates outside of class when you're the only female? I was engaged, too, so I wasn't comfortable meeting only one male classmate away from class to study or compare notes. Plus, like many women, I'm very social, but there were no other women. It was just me and a bunch of guys. True, I like guys and get along with them quite well, but I felt very isolated.
One of the biggest issues, though, was something I heard time and again, from teachers and classmates, and even people outside the program. "Physics? Oh, you'll have an easy time getting a job; you're a woman!" Do you know how insulting that is? And how discouraging? I quickly came to realize just what affirmative action would mean for me: no matter how hard I worked, many people would dismiss my achievements. Many people would assume I was hired or chosen for a project or given a grant because I was a woman. Sometimes they would be right, but either way there were an awful lot of people who would never actually look at my achievements and qualifications to see if I actually deserved it. But I still wanted to go into physics, because I still loved it. (Well, except analog electronics; hated that.)
I never really admitted it to myself until now, but in a way it was a relief when God sent me out of the program. I still love science, but that was so much pressure. I'm sure this is at least part of the reason there aren't more female physicists and physics majors: it's just so very frustrating and wearisome and discouraging, and there are a lot of people who won't give you a fair chance. And being just as good as a guy is NOT enough. And I'll bet some of these factors are at play in the gaming world.
its all about stances![Amicus Dei of [FoG]](/forums/data/avatars/m/2/2239.jpg?1442680077){kind=avatar}
