Unsurprising Survey Shows Female Gamers Still Getting Harassed

We have a brand-new entry in the “no kidding” category of news thanks to the market research of a technology firm known as Lenovo, who recently decided to poll female gamers on issues that pertain to them — specifically, the harassment they face in online games. To the bitter surprise of no one, this is still a big problem for the fairer sex, as 77% of those polled reported that they have faced gender-related harassment, from their competency being questioned (70%), being the victim to gatekeeping (65%) or being patronized (50%). Only 44% of them claimed that they got “unwanted advances” during gametime, which is… good? It’s less than I thought it would be, at least.

In any case, this harassment has lead to an obvious result: 59% of women polled made a habit of discussing their real gender when they play games online, even though they largely play the same games that men do — 88% said they play co-op and competitive games, while 66% said they played shooters specifically.

This isn’t helped by the fact that game companies haven’t been doing as much as they could to really help with their community: 71% of participants claimed that companies could do more to help, from adjusting advertising to being more consistent with how they treat female streamers.

Unsurprising, but upsetting nonetheless. One thing that should be noted, however, is that we did not learn how many people were actually polled, or where they got their participants: it’s entirely possible the results of the poll are skewed, or come from a small population that might not reflect the reality of the situation. That said… this is all entirely believable. So you probably don’t need to add more than a small pinch of salt to the results.

In the meantime, let’s all try our best to do better.