Esports for Everyone? The Case of Women’s Players Esports Career in France
Résumé
With 9,4 million enthusiasts (spectators and/or competitors), esports in France is gaining more
and more media attention. However, only 7 % of the 1,5 million esports amateur players are
women (France Esports Barometer, 2021). If esports uses the codes and language of sports to
create a legitimate competitive practice which provides positive values (e.g., humility, respect,
persistence, etc.) (N. Taylor, 2009), it seems to be built as a predominantly male ecosystem,
where the participation of women as competitive players is a minority (Carneiro & Besombes,
2019; Mejia & Le Savoy, 2018).
Multiple factors explaining the lower engagement of women in competitive gaming have
already been highlighted in the literature. In this regard, T.L. Taylor (2012) identifies two
dominant types of masculinities: the “athletic masculinity” and the “geek masculinity”, both
reproducing gender stereotypes and sexism. These factors are also apparent in the esports
career of women. Their self-representation oscillates between two limits of gendered
expectations: “male-centered”, where they show some opposition to female stereotypes that
can be found in video games and esports; and “female-centered”, constrained by the “male
dominant” framework of esports (Zolides, 2015). Female players who are “integrated” in this
area then set up “compensatory signals” (conscious or unconscious) to assert their femininity
in this male field.
This is reinforced by the presence of interactions and hostile speeches in online games. In this
case, women are confronted with several forms of toxicity, including specific toxicity against
women (Ericsson & Bergstrom, 2020). The consequences on individual career paths are
multiple and to the disadvantage of women.
While the literature exploring and identifying the multiple factors explaining the low
participation of female esports players is abundant (Rogstad, 2021), several grey areas remain
unexplored. Firstly, few data are available concerning the conditions of access to video games,
and especially for French esports players. Similarly, the North American context is studied
from the perspective of a meritocratic system borrowed from traditional sports which erases
gender inequalities in favor of an “equality of opportunity” in the performance (Taylor and
Stout, 2020); but we don’t know well the influence of the “toxic meritocracy” (Taylor and
Stout, 2020) in the French context. Finally, little research has been conducted on the esports
socialization of women players: how they socialize to esports, and what effects this
socialization has on them and their careers. So, this work aims to (i) analyze the gender
inequalities that can be built up throughout the career of an esports player, and (ii) to identify
in part the more or less favorable conditions of women competitors.
In this context, an online survey has been distributed from February to July 2022 on social
networks (Twitter, Facebook, Discord) among communities of French esports players (i.e.,
playing ranked games online and/or participating in esports tournaments). 351 responses (284
men, 58 women) have been collected. Survey themes were focused on their esports career:
beginning of video game practice, discovery and beginning of esports practice, the current
esports practice, and the experience of toxicity in online games/offline competitions. As we
know that a large majority of competitive women players do not register for esports
competitions, several obstacles to the development of an esports career have been more
particularly investigated: players’ perception of social acceptance of the video games and
esports practices by their family, reasons for not registering to competitions, playing time and
age on the entry in a leisure and amateur esports practice.
The data is still being processed but we can already identify that if boys and girls start playing
video games nearly at the same ages (average of 7,3 years old for boys with a standard deviation
of 3,08; average of 8,7 years old for girls with a standard deviation of 4,48), girls start their
competitive practice later than boys (average of 12,38 years old for boys with a standard deviation of 4,29; average of 15,46 years old for girls with a standard deviation of 6,24).
However, women on average register for esports competitions at approximately the same ages
(average of 20,8 years old with a standard deviation of 7,38) than men (average of 19,5 years
old with a standard deviation of 5,03).
These initial results confirm that women are still a minority in the French esports ecosystem
and reasons are multifactorial. They need to be detailed, especially regarding the meaning that
the actors give to their actions and experiences in this field and this specific topic.