A Majority Overpowered By A Struggle Against The System

This is a personal story about my experience with gender majority in the game industry within school systems

Welcome To High School

This is a story revolving around my experience so far in entertainment/game design classes and how I pursued while being singled out because I was a girl in a room full of mostly men. This is something I continue to deal with and I do see as the years go by and I get into higher education this majority of men become less prominent but still present within these classes.

When I started out on my journey it was on the first day of High School. This was your typical high school with stereotypes and very secluded friend groups. This was also a weirder school where most of the classrooms were outdoors so you had to walk to your classroom and had no lockers so professors kept book materials in their classrooms for your use during class.

 Before this point, all the electives I usually took were art or theater classes sometimes with extra time to work on these skills after school with others that wanted to practice. This was the first semester I decided I wanted to start learning about animation, my high school had a program for it but you had to start with the basics which for this school was an AutoCAD Animation hybrid class. I did take other art classes while in high school but this was also when I remember deciding to drop theater classes altogether for the first time in 7 years

This classroom was in the very back of the school by the extra parking lot next to the herbology classrooms. I felt confident about pursuing this class knowing that maybe I could end up getting to where I want to be which is doing animation as a professional hobby. I got into that room and I right away I noticed something was wrong, I thought I stumbled into a frat house because I saw one thing…

Men…men everywhere 

This is basically what it was like walking into the class, it was very strange

I sat down thinking that maybe the men-to-woman ratio would even out as class started to begin, I was being too hopeful for a wish like that to come true. The truth of the matter was I was the only girl that was in this class. I felt outnumbered like in the story of The Ugly Duckling right down to the part of trying to fit into a group that I didn’t belong to. I remember the teacher looking like a typical computer geek with just the right attire to fit this look which was somehow surprising to see this professor embracing the stereotype.

I had two choices, drop the class for something else to fit my ideal situation for student-to-student balance or stick it out suffering with the situation only because I want through the program the school has to offer.

I made my choice, I didn’t want to give up just because I felt uncomfortable around a lot of testosterone in the room. The worst thing that could happen is I work independently because guys don’t can’t have ‘girl friends’ which is false since one of my best friends at that time was a guy who was one of my best friends. To also contradict this, most of the guys in the class found me more interesting than they thought because they actually wanted to be my friend.

The teacher did watch closely regardless of my ideal situation since I could be a target in a different way that could be extremely dangerous which was very nice of the teacher to do, because of this I accidentally became the teacher’s pet which only bothered me since he complimented my work very often and appreciated my determination for class work. I did feel out of place sometimes during group projects or having to choose a group for a project since I only had a couple choices for people I could trust, they did try to single me out but I was very lucky to either have a few people that knew me well enough or was put into a group without choice so they had to be stuck with me.

Unrelated to this but one of the assignments I remember being the most silly and interesting was playing Kerbal Space program to try to get a rocket to the room which I failed in but others did with ease. Another project that was pretty fun was making a flash animation that moved from one screen to the next going all around the room until it looped back around. 

Great game, highly recommend it as a way to pass the time or to learn how rockets work while trying to keep things alive

After 2 semesters, I got to move to a real animation class now having still mostly men but two other girls which boosted my hope for having more voices in these classes, a lot of the students from the previous classes also moved to these classes so I had friends that pursued my dream as well. This class was a 3dsMAX class which is a 3D modeling program that halfway through moved to Maya because it was ‘better’ which I found very jarring because of the controls and things each program could do.

The teacher this time looked like he surfed for a living with messy hair and hoodies. He was very knowledgeable about the animation industry which was exactly what I was looking forward to learning about so all those little quirks could be pushed aside.

I did have another momentary thought about dropping the class because of the majority of men but I was at the finishing line for learning what I really want to learn so again, I couldn’t give up just yet.

I remember covering program functions, silly projects, lectures about Disney/Pixar animations, the 12 Principles of Animation, and early 3D technology. This really made me appreciate that I watched a lot of what was being covered in my childhood which was actually the main reason I wanted to go into animation.

The projects I remember are animating a snowman comedy, Halloween pumpkins movie battle, and a collaborative animation that had to use characters from Pixar’s Toy Story with my overdetermined brain modeling Buzz Lightyear.

This is one of the assignments where we made the pumpkin look then turned it into the Animation about Halloween pumpkins

Everyone at the end of High School in the animation class became good friends sometimes staying right after class to play games the school would let us play on the computers. I ended up actually achieving my goal of fitting in somewhat even if it was still strained with a divide of the genders in the class. I ended up disregarding this fact and enjoying the class for what it was focusing more on learning more than the social atmosphere I was a part of. Something to keep in mind in this type of situation is to never let anyone pull you down cause they will try and you might be able to make any situation not so bad.

Community College Is Weird 

   Finally arriving in College was a dream come true because I could already tell just walking around that everyone wanted to be there so you felt welcomed to be yourself. I was lucky that not so far from my High School was a Community College that I got to attend one with an Associate’s degree in Animation.

 The classes I will be talking about are my Maya class and 2D Animation class since all my other classes did not follow the pattern of having a majority of men. I had hoped that because I moved up to higher education the balance of men to women would be better which I was partially right about.

I found out last year that ol the old buildings I got taught in are being torn down for this new arts and entertainment building which made me kinda mad

It was about 40% women to 60% men most of the time with more people open to treating you equally as far as group projects go but there was still a preference for women to get singled out of groups and the guys that stick to their guy friends. I also got some advice from some of my professors saying that for this career type, it will always be harder for everyone that is not a white man to find work because back then usually in animation and game design it was usually just white men making these things. I am still confident that now that more women in tech positions will change the industry in better ways that will call for more inclusivity from many backgrounds

This is an actual picture of the room I got taught Maya in, loved the big screens and Wacom Drawing Pads that I was given to really succeed (this is not me btw)

With all this in mind, yes I did make friends at this college and I also got the attention of a lot of the professors for my fearless attitude toward getting through my courses in any way possible

University Is A Breath Of Fresh Air

After community college, I moved 3 hours away from my hometown to another little town on the coast at a University which was a big step that took a lot more convincing to up and leave where I grew up. This campus I choose has a Game Design program. I knew what to expect and I knew how to handle those that wanted to stay with the old ways, luckily this was a school that was all about gender inclusivity. I was surprised to find out they were right with almost a 50% split of men to women which was great mostly for a game design program.  

This is the main Game Design Building for the school even though we only use this for half of the classes because other classes book the room for use

This was the last step towards the job industry. One thing I also want to make clear is that schools can reflect on the job industry as far as what people will be like and what to expect. The thing is sometimes that’s not true and it’s much worse or sometimes much better than you thought. I have still seen news articles that talk about women getting harassed or women getting less pay for the same job the man is doing, all of this could still be true once you really get into the job industry. The point is to not expect anything and instead to work with the punches that come by standing up for yourself when times get tough.

I am also seeing a huge rise with female and male teachers being equally distributed since before it was mostly always men teaching the class. I appreciate having the opinion of any professional but being represented at all also feels nice among the professionals 

Final Thoughts

I’m glad I never gave up on my dream even with such a big obstacle in the way that would probably sway most people from trying but I had to see my dream through, a lot of people saw that determination in me which is probably why I was so liked among my professors and probably envied among the other students

I even made friends that believed in me understanding my situation and making the less good times more bearable. The creative journey is also challenging but that’s a never-ending struggle of improving a skill through time and effort. 

I would say that for anyone going through this that you should look forward no matter what happens because it will be rewarded with bigger and better things that can prove how all of that didn’t go to waste. Giving up should be the last option since I believe giving up mean never trying again. I like the word try since this means you can stop trying until you feel like trying again. Staying positive in any situation can help make more choices arise toward a path forward. 

What a good photo to describe how diverse and crazy the Game Industry is

For anyone in the Entertainment Industry that is pursuing this career path, find your own niche to really dedicate time to. Lots of people create things that look good but creating something unique that you love is so much more important. Of course, sometimes you will have to make something a certain style for a job but that also means you still have the chance to put your own creative uniqueness to it. 

I hope to see more genders of all types perusing this path and maybe one day the majority and the minority can disappear leaving us with people that all want to do something special together.