Anita Sarkeesian

Are Your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives Helping or Hurting?

Over the last several years we’ve seen a substantial increase in conversations around the importance of building healthier studio cultures. Studios are finally asking questions about how to boost numbers of underrepresented workers, and how to retain those workers for the long term. This has opened up a market for DEI managers and consultants with the exclusive focus on helping improve company culture, but is it really working? Are the legacy systems and structures inside of game studios still hindering progress and causing more harm to workers?

This discussion will provide participants the opportunity to discuss the challenges in creating real culture change to both support workers and build better games.

Bio:

Anita Sarkeesian is the creator of the award-winning Tropes vs Women in Video Games, a critically acclaimed video series exploring the history of women’s representation in gaming that has garnered nearly 14 million views on YouTube alone. Her work as a media critic, public speaker, and filmmaker who thrives at the intersection of digital culture, accessibility, and social justice helped create a new lexicon. It sparked a paradigm-shifting conversation about improving the representations of marginalized people in video games. She has been featured in The New Yorker, on Good Morning America, and The Colbert Report as well as being named one of TIME 100's Most Influential People.