Gender and the two-tiered system of collegiate esports

Abstract

Collegiate esports in the U.S. and Canada have grown tremendously over the past decade, through intensive investments by both universities and esports publishers. Although post-secondary institutions are believed to offer more hospitable conditions for gender-inclusive esports than professional scenes, the institutionalization of collegiate esports might be transforming these conditions. Drawing from 21 interviews with leaders of both esports clubs and varsity programs in North America, this article describes a two-tiered system of collegiate esports in which opportunities for cultivating greater gender diversity are found primarily among esports clubs, student-run and often precarious. Well-funded varsity programs, by contrast, remain overwhelmingly male-dominated, a disparity held in place by efforts within these programs to recruit-rather than develop-highly skilled players.

The societal impact of electronic sport: a scoping review

“…A total of 13 studies covered topics related to the first category. Studies delivered insights on integration (Freeman & Wohn, 2017), promoting social equality (Taylor & Stout, 2020), and inclusion (Hayday & Collison, 2020;McCauley et al, 2020;Pizzo et al, 2019;Xue et al, 2019), as it is a platform for like-minded people regardless of their origin, gender or (dis-)abilities. One study reveals how normative gender-roles exist in esport and can therefore lead to the opposite of the aforementioned, despite theoretical accessibility and equal opportunities, as there is no skill difference between males and females in esport (Ratan et al, 2015).…”

“…Several studies thematize condescending behavior towards women like sexist behavior and exclusion, namely harassment or male hedonism (Jansz & Martens, 2005;Ratan et al, 2015;Ruvalcaba et al, 2018), low acceptance of other genders and lacking political correctness (Hayday & Collison, 2020;Xue et al, 2019), and application of gender normative roles in games (Ratan et al, 2015). On collegiate or amateur level, there are barely programs or approaches which tackle discriminatory and exclusive issues (Taylor & Stout, 2020). Generally, discriminatory behavior is becoming an overarching problem for sports that are consumed mainly online and anonymously, which is even intensified in casual gaming and semiprofessional esport due to its anonymous exertion (Hayday & Collison, 2020;Kwak et al, 2015;Mattinen & Macey, 2015;Peng et al, 2020).…”

The COVID Season: U.S. Collegiate Esports Programs’ Material Challenges and Opportunities During the 2020–21 Pandemic

“…Esports’ online shift may have reproduced these behaviors at a broader level. Additionally, N. Taylor and Stout (2020) discovered that amateur or casual gaming clubs tended to be more diverse in terms of membership than more formal varsity programs; as universities decide how to adjust their support and funding in the face of pandemic-induced budget cuts ( Huber, 2020 ), supporting varsity programs over clubs could worsen this issue. COVID-19’s impact on collegiate esports, and on players more generally, is thus unclear.…”

Gender and Toxic Meritocracy in Competitive Overwatch: Case “Ellie”

“…There exists a great amount of earlier research on the role of gender in game cultures and competitive gaming (on the latter, see, e.g., Maric 2011;Groen 2013Groen , 2016Ruotsalainen and Friman 2018;Ruvalcaba et al 2018;Voorhees and Orlando 2018;Witkowski 2018;Zhu 2018;Siutila and Havaste 2019;Hayday and Collison 2020;Taylor and Stout 2020). A large part of this work is focused on women (e.g., Groen 2013Groen , 2016Ruotsalainen and Friman 2018;Ruvalcaba et al 2018;Witkowski 2018;Siutila and Havaste 2019;Hayday and Collison 2020), as they are perhaps the most visible and largest group of marginalized gamers.…”