fem-LED

OCAD University’s DMRII is committed to inspiring and championing women to be equipped, consider and embrace leadership in digital media enterprises in order to fully participate in the growing opportunities of the sector. To realize this future, we are focused in applied research that will catalyze change, create new programs to support and expand cultural media enterprises, contribute to the growth of new employment opportunities and support innovation by fostering new models of digital media.

The main Goals of the Fem-LED research project are as follows:

  1. Bringing together researchers and digital practitioners across a range of different disciplinary boundaries to share expertise and to work towards the development of new knowledge, new understanding of the gender divide in ICT to form a coherent plan of action to make change possible.
  2. Building a network of academics and industry that develops outputs that can be disseminated to those in a position to implement the changes needed.
  3. Exploring new forms of participatory workshop research to focus on barriers to engage in enterprise and leadership.

Background

The Information and Communications Technology Council of Canada has released its Quarterly Monitor of Canada’s Digital Economy, spring 2014 edition of Strengthening Canada’s Digital Advantage (SCDA), explores broad economic trends with respect to the digital economy labour market, technology developments and adoption. The report states that the ICT employment in 2014 by indicates a huge difference between the genders (this is a trend for a number of years). In Ontario 299,000 men to 88,000 women or 23% are employed in the sector.

Moreover as part of the overall Digital Economy, there is an increased concern worldwide over the lack of diversity in the digital games sector. Recent statistics reveal that although up to half of game players are women that, according to the Skillset 2009 U.K. census, women represent 4% of the games workforce, this consists of a 8% drop since the previous census in 2006.

The European Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, 2020 Initiative, indicates that only 30% of the ICT global workforce is women and they are underrepresented at all levels of the ICT sector, especially in decision-making positions. The Commission estimates that by 2020 there will be a lack of 900,000 skilled ICT workers and is alarmed that only 4% of all female graduates are enrolled in ICT–related degrees. Commencing in March 2014, the European Commission initiated a campaign to find and celebrate digital role models and plans to expand the program to include women network programming.

In Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada Report on Women ENTREPRENEURS outlines that women entrepreneurs are one of the fastest growing segments of the Canadian economy and represent a growing economic force, between 1991 and 2001, women's self-employment expanded by 43%. It is evident from the latest Census that women are driving the growth of self-employment sector. However there is a gap of accurate data and understanding what percentage of women entrepreneurs are in decision-making roles within the gaming and user-built digital environments sector. The understanding of the gap is significant in light of the necessity of understanding why gender matters in entrepreneurship, in specifically in digital media enterprises. 

Timeline

Come participate in our project: “Focus On Fem-Led” led by OCAD University!

This research explores the enablers and barriers for female leadership in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), this includes: Game Design, Systems Integration, Platform development, etc.

We are looking for participation from female entrepreneurs, intra-preneurs (change makers inside organizations), researchers, practitioners, and key community group leaders to participate in our research.

There are three ways to get involved:

  1. Be a part of our questionnaire on enablers and barriers for women in ICTs (click here)
  2. Get on our mail list to receive reports and be alerted to Fem-led talks and future activities
  3. Come for a Body Storm - August 21, 2015 in Central Toronto (click here)

We look forward to your participation!

FOCUS ON FEM-LED
QUESTIONNAIRE

 

Please take our Questionnaire conducted on behalf of the Fem-led research group at OCAD University. This questionnaire is for women working in Interactive and Digital Media or the broader ICT industry:

Link to Questionnaire:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XHXT539dYW-Sz6nrCK44H4pKeLTnPO5iduxM_OamlOE/viewform].

Consent Information below.
 

QUESTIONNAIRE CONSENT FORM

INVITATION
You are invited to participate in a study that involves research with human participants. The purpose of this study is to understand potential enablers and barriers to female leadership in Information Communication Technology sectors, and Interactive and Digital Media in Particular. It has been funded by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) and is being conducted by Researchers at OCAD University.

WHAT’S INVOLVED
As a participant, you are being asked to participate in an online questionnaire about your experiences and opinions on the issues relating to women, leadership and technology.

POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND RISKS
Possible benefits of participation include deepening an understanding on the status of women in digital media and other technologies, and a contribution to findings and proposals for change. Personally, you may benefit from this exercise of reflection on your journey and achievements.

Possible risks for the participants of this study include potential psychological and social risks that may be greater than those encountered in everyday life. The nature of the research is to explore your opinions and to learn about your experiences in your professional life. You may find this psychologically uncomfortable or fear that you may reveal something that could impact on your career negatively if it becomes communicated broadly. To mitigate risk, this questionnaire is confidential. You may also decline to answer any questions or to withdraw from the questionnaire completely.

CONFIDENTIALITY
The information participants provide will be kept confidential, i.e. participant names or other identifiers will not appear in any report resulting from this study.

Data collected for this questionnaire is anonymous and during this study will be collected online and then stored on a secure, pass-word protected hard drive and locked in cabinet. Data will be kept for up to one year after the completion of this study: January 16, 2017, after which time your data will be destroyed. Access to this data will be restricted to principal investigator and researchers named above.

VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION
Participation in this study is voluntary. If you wish, you may decline to answer any questions or participate in any component of the study.  As the questionnaire is anonymous, we cannot extract your data at a future date once you have submitted the questionnaire.

PUBLICATION OF RESULTS
Results of this study will be presented in a report to the OMDC, it will also be published online, in presentations to conferences and colloquia. In any publication, questionnaire data will be presented in aggregate forms and with confidentiality.

CONTACT INFORMATION AND ETHICS CLEARANCE
If you have any questions about this study or require further information, please contact the Principal Investigator Prof. Suzanne Stein (sstein@faculty.ocadu.ca). This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through the Research Ethics Board at OCAD University [100347]. If you have any comments or concerns, please contact the Research Ethics Office through cpineda@ocadu.ca.

Date: May 3, 2015    
Project Title: Focus on Fem-Led

Principal Investigator:
Professor Suzanne Stein
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences
OCAD University
(416) 315-1896
sstein@faculty.ocadu.ca

Collaborating Faculty:
Professors Emma Westecott, Paula Gardner and Lynne Heller.
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences
OCAD University
(416) 977-6000
Collaborating Researchers: Jill Sharrock , Prateeksha Singh and Mithula Naik.

Thank you for your assistance in this project.  

Bodystorm Workshop

On August 21st 2015, The Mission Business Inc. (TMB) - a Toronto-based foresight, design, and innovation consultancy - delivered a workshop intended to surface, circulate, and capture stories from female tech, internet, and digital media entrepreneurs in Ontario. This was one phase of a project, called fem-LED, run by the Super Ordinary Lab inside the Ontario College of Art and Design, and was enabled by support from the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Purpose of the workshop was to:

  1. Explore the causes of low female participation in information communications technology (ICT) and interactive and digital media (I&DM) leadership with a community of female entrepreneurs and leaders.
  2. Diffusing and contextualizing research from other phases of the Fem-LED project.
  3. Exploring new iterations of The Mission Business (TMB) professional services that deliver value to organizations focused on innovation in the realm of human resources (HR), rather than product development and thought leadership marketing.

At a high level, the purpose of the workshop shared by TMB and OCAD-U researchers was to create a sense of community within a network of female entrepreneurs working in the ICT / I&DM industries in Ontario, and to explore with that group the causes of women dropping out of leadership positions in Ontario companies.

The group of participants who attended the workshop were brought together in the context of a speculative narrative designed by TMB, in order to give all of the women in attendance permission to share stories during the course of the workshop’s proceedings. This narrative introduction was delivered by Dorothy “Dot” Drummond, the CEO of a fictional company called 4Corp created by TMB for workshops and online education programs. 4Corp’s products and services set the company in a futuristic context, but it faces the same challenges that ICT / I&DM companies in Ontario have today, as highlighted in other phases of the Fem-LED research project.

Women and Games

Game studies is the relatively new and multi- and inter-disciplinary academic field of studying games, game design, game players and their role in society and culture more broadly.

To date the themes addressed by feminist game studies can be sketched as work on gendered activity in digital games and feminine preference in play style and game characteristics. Other key studies look to gender equity in game making and to the wider context of access to games. From Brenda Laurel's work in the early 90s (Yates & Littleton, 1999) onwards (long pre-dating any such thing as games studies); critics, commentators and the academy have offered theories and observations on the difference in play habits, styles and consumption of digital gaming exhibited by women and girls. Yet much of the work that has been carried out, seemingly in isolation in the U.K., U.S. and Europe, has cycled through repeating debates on representation, equity and access. For example, some research points to specific gender preference in play style whereas Jenson’s and de Castell’s (2008) work shows that these differences can be more about novice players than about gender. Jenson and de Castell (2008) urged researchers to "rethink the assumptions and presumptions of work on gender and gameplay.." in a call to acknowledge the always situated context of gameplay and game research in order to frame a solid foundation for future work, whether theoretical or practical.

Contact Us

Suzanne Stein
230 Richmond Street West, Room (8)310, Level 3  Toronto, ON M5V 2CS
Phone: 416.977.6000 Ext. 4584
Email: sstein@faculty.ocadu.ca
Web: http://research.ocadu.ca/superordinary

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Our Partners & Collaborators

Mission Business
femTech Net
Institute on Research for Digital Learning

Funding for this project is provided by Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC)
www.omdc.on.ca

Body storm Workshop
Ontario Media Development Corporation Logo
Wednesday, October 19, 2016 - 6:45pm