Xbox honors International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month 2022 by raising awareness and celebrating the important role of mentorship to uplift the next generation of women in gaming. On March 8, Xbox released a blog post written by Executive Producer of Everwild, Louise O’ Connor who is also a champion and member of the fellowship of the Women of Xbox UK. She highlights the importance of mentorship and encouraging a culture where women uplift and support other women. With that, Xbox introduces a mentoring program that aims at allowing women valuable one on one coaching sessions with key leaders across the globe.
“One of the greatest joys I have found through mentoring other women is what I call the “Leveling up Moment”- when the culmination of their hard work and resilience meets with breakthrough and success”, says O’Connor. She has had the opportunity to connect the community of women who work across Xbox’s UK studios which include game designers, engineers, audio/sound experts and producers. According to the ESA, 45% of gamers identify as women. This is almost half of all people who play video games, yet there is an underrepresentation of women characters in gaming. The number falls a bit lower, as 30% of video game developers identify as women across the globe.
“By increasing diversity and representation in the people who make games, we can create new and unique gaming experiences for everyone”.
O’Connor says that half of the design and production team at Xbox game studio Rare are women because of their investment in making inclusivity and diversity a priority in how they build teams. More details about this mentoring program will be revealed in mid-March.
The rest of the blog covers how Xbox spotlights stories about representing gaming from the women gamers in the Xbox Ambassadors community. Throughout March, the Xbox Twitch Channel will feature programming celebrating Women’s History Month. There is also the fifth quarterly Gears 5 Women’s Tournament which will stream at 10 a.m PT on March 26. Finally, the “Women of Xbox UK” Podcast will return for their season 2, with a brand-new lineup of empowering and inspirational leaders. This podcast is another step at presenting the spotlight toward phenomenally talented women from a wide range of roles with the aim to encourage young women to take a step into a career within the games industry.