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As both artists and consumers, girls and women have important roles to play in the world of videogames. Issues such as gender imbalance, poor character representation and online abuse, hower, have long conspired to make the to five local creatives about how gender inequality in gaming can be addressed, both in the classroom and beyond.

Videogames are becoming more and more embedded into teaching practice in both primary and secondary schools. With a revised Digital Technologies curriculum and a number of professional learning opportunities now available, videogame analysis and development has become a core component of our teaching. However, there appears to be a gap in the education of our students when it comes to understanding the experience of identifying as female in the gaming landscape.

Women play an integral role in shaping the games industry, and almost 50 per cent of gamers are women. Yet women still comprise only 15 per cent of the creatives working in the industry, and the online gaming community remains hostile towards women, girls and minorities in general. The long, mortifying history of aggression towards women in this landscape came to a head in 2014 with ‘Gamergate’, an online harassment movement targeting women in the games industry. Since this time, abusive treatment of women in videogames – creatives and players alike – has only continued.

While there are many supportive and powerful groups fighting back against harassment and threats, negative behaviour persists. As teachers, we are in a position to facilitate discussion on this matter by highlighting the existence of powerful women in game development while also