Female characters in video games tend to be oversexualized and we suppose some of the blame falls onto society and its perception of women, and to a certain extent some also believe that the disparity between male and female employees in the industry is also to blame, which is why there are many initiatives these days to try and encourage more women to enter the tech industry.
Now thanks to an internal memo at Blizzard that was obtained by the folks at Kotaku, it looks like Blizzard has plans to diversify its workplace by making an effort to try and hire more women and to retain those that currently work for them. In the memo sent out by company president Mike Morhaime, it seems that only 21% of Blizzard’s workforce is comprised of women.
He also highlights how female employees at Blizzard tend to leave at a higher rate compared to male employees, something that seems to be in line with the industry, but one that Morhaime and Blizzard hopes to change, at least on their end. To do so, Blizzard plans to launch a diversity effort to hire and retain more women in the workplace, and it is also expected to expand to over under-represented minority groups in the future.
Blizzard’s attempts at diversifying isn’t new and we have seen those efforts made in their latest franchise Overwatch, where the game introduced a gay character and also female characters who aren’t oversexualized, so this move by the company doesn’t really come as a surprise, although it is still a good move on their part.
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