Women Working In Video Game Industry: Mexican Women Now Seeing Room For Their Ideas

The video game industry has traditionally been a testosterone-heavy sphere. But just like in the United States, Mexican women are muscling into a more important place in the sector. According to CNN Mexico, women there are going from being the "princess in distress" to professionals who have a hand in programming, producing and distribution for animation studios and other media companies in the video game industry. Earlier this month, Alina Valera, host and editor of the video game site LevelUp.com, told El Diario de Yucatan that when she first got into the industry, it was difficult for men to accept the prospect of working with women, and many sneered at the idea that a woman could beat them in video games.

But, Valera added, that's changing. "In the United States, the number of women who are fans of video games just grew this year to 47 percent. And I think that in Mexico and other parts of the world, the same thing is happening as in the United States: now almost half of video game players are women," she said. Reuters reported in January that while the percentage of women consumers might not necessarily grow, their numbers almost surely will: as smartphones go mainstream and deliver gaming to a broader sector of the population, video game publishers and developers are looking to tap into an audience other than young males. And they may turn to women for help on how to do it.

"When it comes to production, women have better abilities in communication, negotiation and problem solving," Stephanie Prodanovich, Associate Project Manager in various production studios, told CNN Mexico. She added that even in the areas of art and illustration, "their style is sweeter and more friendly, more universal." Prodanovich, a graduate in Audiovisual Communications from Mexico's Universidad del Claustro del Sor Juana, works as a producer for the independent studio Elevator Games and coordinates for several developers in Latin America for the firm Square Enix, which is responsible for titles like Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider.

In both Mexico and the United States, there still exists a vast disparity between the genders on the question of who works in video games - in Mexico, only 8 percent are women, and in the United States only 11 percent. Even as they play a greater role in the industry, they still sometimes face a tough time winning over their peers. "The problem is that there's few women in the industry," said Prodanovich, "and there's always those who idealize us. It's okay for them to have a certain admiration for us, but not just because we're women, but because we know and have experience in this."

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