Keywords:
Video Games, Transformative Power, Individual Transformation, Structual Transformation, Women in Gaming, gamevironments
Abstract
This paper examines the extent to which video games can transform the lives of women, with regard toaspects of identity, social belonging, and agency. The existing literature demonstrates that video games have the potential for transformation among women by fostering creativity, community-building, skill-acquisition, and even professional pathways in gaming and technology (Lopez-Fernandez et al. 2019). Yet video games can simultaneously reproduce systemic exclusions related to race, class, and gender (Gray 2014, Nakamura 2009). Drawing on a mixed-methods approach combining desk research and 30 semi-structured interviews with women across gaming communities, industry, and policy contexts, the paper differentiates between individual and structural forms of transformation. The findings show that while gaming might support individual-level empowerment and social connection, structural inequalities within gaming cultures and the industry constrain broader societal change. Importantly, the paper identifies that the industry often relies on practices of personal transformation, placing the burden of change on individuals, often requiring emotional labour and self-censorship. At the same time, the focus on the adaptable nature of individuals allows many structural characteristics of the gaming culture, and by extension the gaming industry, to continue unchanged. This paper calls for careful, evidence-based analysis of the conditions under which digital gaming may contribute to gender equality and social value or continues to reproduce and reinforce existing inequalities.
Author Biographies
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Katharine Sarikakis, University of Vienna
Katharine Sarikakis is professor of Communication Science and heads the Media Governance and Industries Research Lab. She is the Coordinator of two Horizon Europe projects: REBOOT and GAMEHEARTS. Her research interests focus on transformation, process of decision-making and power relations in media governance. Her work encompasses the empirical and theoretical development of the concept of media governance through the study of institutions, regulatory frameworks, the role of civic engagement and ethics, at European and global levels. From a governance object specific perspective, her work has been investigating the areas of privacy, hate speech, audiovisual cultures including the role of archives, and dis/information under the lens of human rights and civil liberties. Katharine's research includes, in an integrative way, feminism and gender.
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Ayça Becerir, University of Vienna
Ayça Becerir is a Prae Doc Research Assistant at the Department of Communication, University of Vienna. She works on the EU Horizon Europe project GAMEHEARTS under the supervision of Prof. Katharine Sarikakis. Her research areas are media governance, identity representation in media, and the interplay between media and power. Holding an interdisciplinary perspective, her research aims to unpack the social and political implications of different media apparatuses, particularly video games.
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Oleksandra Gudkova, University of Vienna
Oleksandra Gudkova is a senior researcher at the Department of Communication, University of Vienna. Her research focuses on media governance, gender, and democracy, with a particular emphasis on women’s roles in European pro-democracy and gender justice movements and their relation to the governance of the public sphere. Since January 2024, she has been working on the EU Horizon Europe project GAMEHEARTS, examining the experiences of women and youth in the video game industry.
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Lisa Baumgartner, University of Vienna
Lisa Baumgartner is currently pursuing a master's degree in Communication Science at the University of Vienna. Under the supervision of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katharine Sarikakis, she serves as a junior researcher for the EU-funded project GAMEHEARTS. Lisa's research interests focus on women's rights and the representation of gender in the media. In addition, she has been streaming regularly on Twitch since 2020 and became partner the same year. This experience has provided her with valuable insights into the dynamics of online communities, content creation, and the intersection of media and audience interaction.
