This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #EmbraceEquity, which encourages everyone to “do their part in creating a fair and equal world within their sphere of influence.” At the heart of this is the idea that we all have a role to play- no matter how big or small- in building more gender equity in the world.
When I think about my sphere of influence, I’m reminded that our industry recently reached a milestone of 3 billion active gamers. This means our industry has the potential to reach nearly half the world’s population with the content we create. That is an incredible opportunity to impact societies and cultures worldwide for the better: it’s all within our reach, but only if we continue to do the work to create diverse and inclusive cultures which will result in content that can shape society.
At EA, I remain focused on the things we control and ensure that we are accountable and transparent about our progress. A couple of examples from our 2022 Impact Report, we increased underrepresented talent in executive (VP+) roles by 46 percentage points over the last two years, and we continued our commitment to pay equity by maintaining gender base pay equity around the globe. I cite these not to boast but to demonstrate real signals we’re doing what we said we would. I challenge all of us in the gaming industry to be accountable for what we’ve promised and share that progress.
I see pockets of that progress daily, but unfortunately, we’re also losing ground in other areas. Two headlines recently stood out to me: The World Economic Forum annual 2022 Global Gender Gap Report revealed that while in 2020 we were on track to close the gender gap within 100 years- the current rate of progress has pushed us out to 132 years. Separately the recent Women in the Workplace report fueled headlines that female executives were leaving their jobs at the highest rate ever.
The halt in progress makes this year’s theme, #EmbraceEquity, not just a great hashtag, but a mandate for action. Let’s have the tough conversations, hear the hard truths, and do the work to reverse the negative trend. It is within our reach – let’s do this.