Not gamers, just women who play video games: A survey of women’s attitudes to mobile games in the UK

Abstract

This study investigates the barriers to playing video games that women face. Despite gaming being a traditionally male-dominated pastime, 51% of women now game in some capacity compared to 53% of men. However, women are still less likely to play some genres and often face discrimination. A survey of 1000 people in the UK who identify as women and who play mobile games revealed that they experience negative emotions around playing video games: A third experienced guilt about taking time to play games and 1 in 6 kept gaming a secret for fear of judgement. There were also unexpected associations in the data: Women who look forward to playing are more likely to feel guilty than those who do not, and women who feel proud of their gaming achievements were more likely to keep it a secret than those who do not. We relate these patterns to theories of gendered attitudes toward leisure time and argue they are rooted in women feeling excluded from gaming culture. We suggest the implications for game makers and game scholars, including the potential benefits of broadening the perception of who plays video games, who games are for, and what types of games are available.