Where are all the women in gaming?

Gaming has come a long way since Pac Man and Space Invaders.

According to gaming statistics company Newzoo the UK is the 6th biggest games market in the world with 37.3 million players.

Four in 10 people say they like gaming and there are 2,261 active games companies in the UK as of 2018 according to Ukie - the Association for UK interactive entertainment.

With 49% of men and 48% of women playing mobile games you'd think that would translate to who was making these games.

This is not the case though, with the latest 2015 statistics from Creative Skillset suggesting that women make up only 19% of the people creating those games.

Gaming isn't the only field that employers are finding it hard to get girls involved in - Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (Called STEM) are all fields that employ substantially more men than women.

What's being done about it?

Many companies have tried to encourage more women to get involved by going into schools and launching competitions like Cyber first and Digital Schoolhouse Esports.

These competitions allow girls who would not normally be interested in tech to learn how to code and solve problems in school.

The lack of diversity in the gaming world has not gone unnoticed. Ukie CEO, Dr Jo Twist OBE said: "All players should be able to recognise themselves in the characters and worlds of the games that they play. There is a growing appetite for games with more varied characters, stories and mechanics and it's through having more diverse teams that the games industry can continue to deliver this".

Even the Girl Scouts of America have been trying to get more girls interested STEM by offering girls as young as five badges in cyber-security.

It's hoped that with these new badges it will get more girls involved in science, technology engineering and mathematics from a young age.

Raspberry Pi/coding made easy

The Raspberry Pi changed the way kids learned how to code. It was a computer designed to get more kids creating software for themselves.

The makers decided to strip away the fancy covers of a regular computer and take it back to basics.

When it was first released it cost around £30 after tax and delivery charges, and it looks like a circuit board.

Tips on how to start coding

Tip 1 - Use coding resources online or find a code club at your school or local library.

Tip 2 - Get yourself a Raspberry Pi and learn to code on one of those.

Tip 3 - Check out some YouTube tutorials that will help you on your way.

With all this doom and gloom you would think that thinks were pretty terrible but that's not strictly true. According to Creative Skillset in 2009 women only made up 6% of the gaming workforce so things are improving slowly.

With more investment, and companies trying to engage more women, that number should rise.