Gender Considerations and Influence in the Digital Media and Gaming Industry

Julie Prescott (CPsychol, PhD, MA, BSc) is a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Bolton. Julie gained her PhD from the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at The University of Liverpool, UK, in 2011. Julie has a research career spanning over ten years in academic and public sector environments. Julie's background is in psychology and women's studies; she has a particular interest in women's careers, especially in terms of barriers and drivers, occupational segregation, and the experiences of women working in male dominated occupations/industries, in particular the computer games industry. Julie has published one book entitled Gendered Occupational Differences in Science, Engineering, and Technology Careers (co-authored with Jan Bogg). Julie McGurren (BA, MSc) has worked in the UK games industry since 1999 where following studying a Masters in Computer Graphics at Teesside University she joined the Liverpool based games company Bizarre Creations. After working as an artist on Metropolis Street Racer and PGR1/2 she moved in an art management role on PGR3 and continued to work in this position on PGR4 and BLUR. These games have sold millions of copies across the globe and are rated highly amongst critics and gamers alike. After Bizarre closed in 2011 she moved to Codemasters and has worked as an Art Producer on DIRT Showdown and GRID2, the sequel to the critically acclaimed and BAFTA awarding winning GRID. She continues to work at Codemasters as an Art Producer on an unannounced title.