Gender discrimination in the workplace has been notorious throughout the history of game development– and it was no different back in 90s Japan, especially for early SNK artist Hiroko Yokoyama.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanks to translations provided by Necrosoft Games’ Brandon Sheffield, Yokoyama\u00a0shares some of her experiences through Twitter<\/a> when 3D design was being introduced to games, and how women were essentially\u00a0barred from learning the technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yokoyama\u00a0describes\u00a0how the unnamed company she worked for in the ’90s wanted to train two artists in the rising tech\u00a0of 3D polygons, but any women applicants were instantly dismissed.<\/p>\n She volunteered to learn the tech herself after the two trained workers had left the company,\u00a0but being married, her boss declined on the basis that \u201cmarried women don\u2019t work properly after giving birth.\u201d He also apparently dismissed her work on the grounds that she was a \u201cfat, ugly, otaku\u201d and wrote off his comments with an “it’s just a joke” excuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The boss\u2019s logic was \u2013 we are training these people to learn technology and keep it in the company. He apparently said: \u201cSince girls quit working after getting married, there\u2019ll be no technology left in the company, so there\u2019s no point in letting them do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The two guys who the boss invested in up and leave the company. They didn\u2019t share the technology or learning with anyone, they just left. So in the end, what did he invest in? She was frustrated even more because of the boss\u2019s impression that only women would leave like that.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n So as a woman you can\u2019t learn anything new if you\u2019re not married because you’ll get married and leave, and you\u2019re not worth investing in if you already are because you’ll have a baby and leave. She says \u201cTalking about it now, I feel like I was told \u2018hey, eat shit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n She doesn\u2019t believe those decisions are all the way at the top, at least at that company, since women were allowed to be planners\/designers, but middle management was keeping women \u201cin their place.\u201d (my own editorializing: they were worried about keeping their jobs\/status quo)<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) August 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u2014 brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) August 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u2014 brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) August 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n