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A new study has found that women experience guilt and shame around playing games, and that this is related to feeling excluded from the traditionally male pastime.
The study surveyed 1,000 women of all ages across the UK who play mobile games – the most popular way for women to play – on how they felt about gaming.
The research was led by Dr Steph Rennick, Lecturer in Interactive Media at the University of Stirling, and Dr Seán Roberts, Lecturer in Communication at Cardiff University, in partnership with Swedish gaming studio Undone Games.
There is a growing number of women gamers, with 51% of women now gaming in some capacity compared to 53% of men, however women are still underrepresented in many game genres and in the content of games.
In the survey, 41% of women agreed that playing games is one of the things they most look forward to each day, but almost 60% felt that they do not play enough games to consider themselves a gamer, and more than 30% agreed that they would be embarrassed to call themselves one.
Dr Rennick said: “The study shows many women feel excluded from video game culture, with significant numbers of women feeling guilty about playing video games and worrying about what others think of them taking time to play games.
“Interestingly, feeling guilty or keeping secrets about gaming did not correlate with how much time women spent playing games. We expected a significant proportion of women to report feelings of guilt around playing video games and taking leisure time more generally. But while we thought feelings of guilt or shame would have a negative impact on the amount of time women spent playing games, we didn’t find such a connection. Those who feel guilty or keep secrets don’t play less, but they feel worse.”
Using machine learning techniques to identify connections in the data, the experts found some striking patterns. For example, younger players were more likely to feel guilty about playing video games, with those aged 16-24 being three times more likely to strongly agree that they feel guilty about taking time to play than those aged 55+.
Guilt also seemed to be related to whether women felt they fit into gaming culture, with 60% of women surveyed saying that they do not play enough games to consider themselves a gamer.
Women were twice as likely to feel guilty if they thought that gaming was mainly a male pastime (46% vs 23%) or if they said they would be embarrassed to call themselves a gamer (55% vs. 35%). In contrast, women who felt that occasionally playing any game made you a gamer were 42% less likely to feel guilty.
The survey also found that 75% of respondents classified themselves as casual gamers, but a quarter of these were also spending more than an hour per day playing video games on a PC or console.
Strikingly, even amongst women who spent more than five hours a day playing games on mobile, console or PC, only one in six identified as a hardcore gamer.
Dr Seán Roberts, who researches gaming at Cardiff University, said: “When I ask people if they play video games, women often say no. But if you ask about playing games on a mobile, many of them will suddenly say yes. It’s like they have an idea of what a real gamer is in their heads, and they feel like they don’t meet that ideal.”
There appears to be a link between shame and worrying what others think of you, with 16% keeping gaming a secret from friends and family for fear of judgement.
Women who reported feeling anxious or depressed when scrolling social media were twice as likely to keep gaming a secret compared to women who were not (31% vs 12%).
Furthermore, feeling and expressing pride in gaming as a woman is a difficult balancing act: women who felt very proud of their achievements in games were slightly more likely to keep it a secret than those who did not feel as proud (22% vs. 14%). In contrast, women who were motivated to play games to challenge themselves were half as likely to keep it a secret (11% vs 20%).
Dr Roberts added: “Women tend to spend less time playing if they feel they don’t fit into gaming culture – for example if they believe that gaming is a male pastime, or that they don’t play enough games to be a gamer, are embarrassed to call themselves a gamer, or think video games are too violent. In contrast, women spend more time playing if they are proud of their gaming achievements.
“This suggests that guilt and shame are just symptoms. While these are clearly negatively impacting women gamers, they may not be the root of the problem. Instead, removing barriers to play for women may require deeper changes such as reducing leisure inequality between men and women.”
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