TAR UC Students Fight for Gender Equality in Esports 

Date: 23 March 2022

Time: 9 to 11 am

Venue: Google Meet

Faculty of Communication and Creative Industries (FCCI), Bachelor in Public Relations (Hons) year one students hosted an online forum, namely Gamers United Against Racism, Sexism and Discrimination, “GUARDS”, via Google Meet on March 23, 2022, to increase students’ awareness on gender inequality in Esports.

For many women throughout the world, gaming has always been a difficult nut to crack. Female gamers are no strangers to verbal abuse and sexist insults in the gaming community. As this issue has not been resolved and many women are still not confident in standing out to become a gamer and a streamer, the forum aims to encourage the public to be more confident in themselves and to fight against the stereotypes that have been circulating for years.

The organising team has invited Miss Eyyome, who is an experienced female streamer to be one of the speakers to share her views on the Esports industry. She began streaming on Facebook Gaming in 2019 and is now a member of Team Salty talent as a streamer. Another speaker for the forum was Miss Chan Xin Ying, who is from the Family and Children’s Affairs Department of Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC). Both speakers gave some insight on gender inequality in the Esports world based on their experiences. They stated that female gamers would have difficulty entering the gaming industry as the male gamers generally would feel that it is embarrassing to lose to females during a tournament.

The event was welcomed with a total of 114 participants who were there to be enlightened on the issue of gender inequality in the gaming scene. Even though GUARDS forum is just a two-hour event, it serves the purpose of encouraging female audiences to be more comfortable and confident while they game, or even join a tournament in the future and consider turning gaming into a career. The forum was supplemented with lucky draw prizes, which served as a token of appreciation for the participants attending the forum.