Codyfight is proud to have launched a new initiative to raise awareness on a very important issue in the GameFi industry: the lack of women.
As a way to increase the visibility of girls working in the space, and to provide a space to share experiences, challenges, and other topics related to womanhood, we have started a monthly Twitter Space to debate the importance of gender in the industry, and already counted with the participation with different projects and representatives, that chatted with other colleagues on the importance of women in the industry.
Why did Codyfight start this project?
The project was launched after careful research in the sphere where statistics proved a significant gap between male and female roles in two industries with very little female representation: the gaming industry and the crypto one.
In the gaming industry, the female population reaches 45%, and in Asian countries, it is almost 50%. However, these women are not represented in the workforce, nor the influencers that dominate the sphere.
Female influencers in gaming make up 35% of the streamers based on Twitch and only 24% of the industry workforce is female. This is a huge void between their masculine counterparts. And in the case of crypto, the statistics do not get any better.
Only 5% of the CEOs in token sales are women, and less than 10% of crypto fund partners are female. They are hardly represented in the industry per se, taking the USA as an example, where only 26% of holders are women.
The combination of two great titans with hardly any female presence leads to a fresh industry where the lack of women is clearly visible and therefore awareness is not only necessary but also action must be taken.
The birth of Women in GameFi
After some research, Codyfight decided to take matters into their own hands and prepare a space that would encourage womanhood in the industry. The discussion led us into organizing Twitter Spaces as it would be a greater platform to provide each woman the time needed to express their thoughts and dialogue with other colleagues.
The next step was to invite different workers to participate in our Space but it was not an easy task since most of the projects that we encountered along the way did not have many female employees. Despite this issue, which we already expected, we managed to propose the initiative to different women part of great projects like Illuvium, Decentraland, Gala Games, and more.
We contacted many people from different backgrounds and roles and everybody showed great interest in the project. Even though some women had unavailability to participate, they still found a way to support the space in social media or through private conversations.
Once the contacts were established, we set a date for our first launch of the Twitter Space and constructed a structure with several topics to discuss, including discrimination, wage differences, communication, and many other issues centered around the workplace.
First panel: Monika, Sandra, and Diana
Our first guests kicked off the project on the 15th of September. The panel counted 3 great women from different backgrounds on the GameF scene.
Firstly we welcomed, Monika Sviderskė, CMO at Lossless, with a broad experience in the web3 space and great expertise in Management and Digital Marketing. We also had in the dicussion Sandra Reivik, specialized in Manager Strategic Partnerships in MagicCraft and a great networking experience in the blockchain industry. And lastly, Diana-Waleska Mauricio lead engineer in Gala Games and an expert in software.
The three speakers felt a lack of presence in GameFi and looked forward to initiatives to embark more females in the space. Sandra discussed this topic and was hopeful for the future,
“I would love to see more women getting into the crypto space. More initiatives, conferences, and especially more educational opportunities. Now, projects like “Women in Tech” are helping to spread awareness to the female community and offering learning opportunities so more people can take part in the industry”
Diana spoke in the same terms as Sandra and hoped that more women would be part of gaming teams through communities,
“As a woman of color and engineer, I am always working around a lot of men. Sometimes it feels isolating and I hope that through gaming we can connect with more women and especially more female engineers to join GameFi teams”.
The abundance of men in the industry does feel isolating for women, and at times even leads to a different perception according to Monika,
“At times men in the industry don’t take you seriously. They ask you constantly to reaffirm your position and even to speak to other male counterparts in your team”.
Sandra also believes that women can struggle to face the high amount of male presence in the industry,
“I go to a lot of conferences in the crypto sphere and it’s a sausage party. Sometimes people label you and put you in a box for being a woman. It feels like you have to prove your worth multiple times until you start to be more confident and comfortable around them”.
And the worst part according to them is that your abilities can be sometimes diminished by your gender. Monika referred to this issue,
“I have had situations where many male community members loved Lossless because of their beautiful CMO. I am not just a visual object and would like to be valued and perceived because of my abilities”.
Second panel: Supitcha, Isabel, Tiana, and Ting
Our second edition came around on the 5th of October and this time we offered a spot for 4 great women in the industry.
The chat welcomed Tiana Noveen, a senior marketing manager from Dapper Labs with a long career in social media and marketing. Noveen was joined by Suphitcha Latthikul, CMO from Evermoon, an expert in business partnership and research, as well as greatly knowledgeable on the web3 space.
We also welcomed Isabel Gomes, a 3D artist from Decentraland with a long career in the gaming industry and expertise in character animation. And lastly, Ting Peng, COO of Cross The Ages with a qualified international cooperation background and skilled in the tech sphere.
This time the discussion focused on discrimination in the industry, opportunities in GameFi, and sexism in gaming.
The speakers felt that the gap between women and men in the industry is necessary to address. However, there were different opinions on the matter. Ting explained her position in these terms,
“It’s still a problem worldwide the lack of women in different industries, especially in crypto. But at the same time as web3 is challenging and new, many women are interested, and provides a better balance. I have not felt discriminated inside my team and we have a similar amount of male and female workers”.
Suphitcha agrees with Ting in this regard as her team experiences a similar situation,
“Like Ting, my team is very well balanced. However, I do feel a lack of women’s roles in the gaming industry, especially not only in terms of inclusivity but also to provide another perspective. GameFi is not only a man’s hobby, but many girls also love games and we should be aware”.
Isabel was not as lucky as her colleagues and expressed a lot of solitude in her journey,
“In my previous jobs, I was the only one in animation. Now in Decentraland, there are more female colleagues, but it is still a field with barely any women. My sister works in games as well, and she is the only lead artist. We need to attract more girls into the industry and prove that game development can be for everybody.”
The lack of women in the field is also a problem for games since it does not broaden the spectrum to create new narratives and ideas. Tiana expresses this concern,
“There is a lack of women in the industry and even fewer roles occupied by colored women. Now in Dapper Labs, I am meeting more female coworkers but we still have a long way to go. A room full of white men will not give you a new perspective.”
All the speakers agreed that there should be more initiatives to bring women together and allow opportunities for them to talk and feel more confident in their jobs, as Tiana expresses
“Making sure to represent yourself in the conference room or a team is important. We need to understand our value. We are often overqualified and feel the need to explain everything. It happens everywhere and it should be stopped. We need to set our ground and create communities to support each other”.
In this line, Suphitcha also added that to shift the industry, it should be done from the inside,
“Empowering women should be done from our projects. The more women we allow to come in, the better perspective we will achieve of the industry. Let’s pave a new wave for girls in GameFi”.
Wrapping up
We hope that this new project brings communities together and spreads awareness of the importance of women in the industry. From Codyfight, we keep looking for endeavors to solve the industry’s biggest pain points, and this is a big one.
Listen to the full version of the Twitter Spaces and follow the girl’s projects on social media as well as our own. We are constantly launching new activities and events to take part in and updating the state of our game.
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