Yesterday, we broke a story about the IeSF and their males only Hearthstone tournament. The gaming works was infuriated that this international eSports organization had male only and female only gaming tournaments. Well, to the organization’s credit, they have listened to gamers and have changed their policies.
“On 2nd of July, 2014, the IeSF’s policy about gender division, which separates the female division and the male division, has been brought into question. The IeSF has listened to the gaming community and has carefully considered their opinions. Upon hearing these concerns, the IeSF convoked an emergency session of the IeSF Board to respond,” the group said in a recent statement.
“As a result, IeSF shall have two event categories: ‘Open for All’ events and events that are reserved for women. The events which were initially set aside as the male division will now be open to all genders, and the events which were initially set as the female division will remain as they were.”
“The IeSF Board addressed its reason for maintaining events for women, citing the importance of providing female gamers with ample opportunities to compete in eSports–currently a male-dominated industry. Female gamers make up half of the world’s gaming population, but only a small percentage of eSports competitors are women. The IeSF’s female-only competitions aim to bring more diversity to competitive play by improving the representation of women at these events. Without efforts to improve representation, e-Sports can’t achieve true gender equality.”
Huh, not bad IeSF, not bad. I’m not sure that continuing to have women only events is the best thing in the world, but at the very least you have a good reason for it.
Source: Gamespot