Commemorating International Women’s Day with Riot Games
“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.” — Gloria Steinem, world-renowned journalist and activist.
Above and Beyond
When Casey Clough and Su Liu suggested that their company, Riot Games, make their International Women’s Day celebration a large-scale event, they were met with enthusiasm and support. Casey plays an integral part of Riot Games social media channels as a social media comms strategist. Su, on the other hand, ensures that Esports Tech pros have what they need to play as live producers. Absent from either of their job responsibilities is being a part of Riot events team, the group in charge of planning and coordinating Riot’s events. But Casey and Su went above and beyond to make the International Women’s Day event a reality at Riot. And to great reviews!
Okay, so maybe Casey and Su weren’t delegated to plan events but both women share a calling towards building up the Riot community. Both serve on a team known as the Rioter Identity Group (RIG) which aims to make Riot Games the kind of place that openly welcomes those within marginalized gender communities. It comes as no surprise that women have historically been a marginalized group within the video gaming community. But this can be improved. We all can be better.
In an effort to bring about a better gaming community from within Riot, Casey, Su, and Riot’s internal events crew went to work to create a celebration of women and non-binary Rioters as well as give these Rioters a space to inspire, lead and support each other. What resulted was Riot’s first ever large-scaled celebration of International Women’s Day.
International Women’s Day
If you are unaware of International Women’s Day or IWD, get with it! The holiday is now over a century old as the first IWD gathering took place in 1911. IWD is all about celebrating the social, economic, cultural, political, and in this case gaming achievements of women. Finding a home in the gaming industry has not exactly been easy for women up to this point, and yet many (not enough) have made it. The Kimmy Schmidt theme song comes to mind, “Females are Strong as Hell!”
Breaking into the industry is not enough for the women and non-binary people at Riot Games. The Rioters that gathered for IWD also took the day to brainstorm on how to bring gender equality to the gaming industry as well as how to attract historically unrepresented groups to the glory that is gaming. By sharing their own experiences, learnings, and personal stories, the group that met on March 8th stayed right in step with the facet of the IWD celebration that calls for action towards gender parity.
Designing Change
Riot’s events team was pleased to have former Rioter and co-founder of The Story Mob, Nicola Piggott, come out for the IWD festivities. Nicola gave an empowering talk about climbing the esports ladder in a male-centric space. Her talk also included ways to create an impact in the gaming community and “leaving the ladder” for future women game programmers and designers.
The next part of Riot’s IWD celebration entailed a series of 5-minute lightning round talks by a variety of women in gaming. These quick talks allowed for a richer discussion of community building. This discussion culminating in an interactive panel discussion of Rioters speaking about their experiences in the industry. The day wrapped up at a Riot-hosted mixer for women in games. After all, IWD is a celebration!
The International in International Women’s Day was inherently built into Riot’s celebration as the event wasn’t only held at their Los Angeles headquarters. Women from Riot’s community hosted events in offices around the globe. Throughout the month of March, offices in Hong Kong, Brazil, Turkey, Dublin, Berlin, Chile, and Mexico City worked with the International Women’s Day team to throw their own local events.
While this was only the first celebration it will hardly be the last. Riot has committed to making the holiday an annual part of their recognition and appreciation of women and non-binary Rioters. To be a part of Riot Games’ International efforts visit their diversity, inclusion & Riot Culture page here, https://www.riotgames.com/en/diversity-inclusion-and-culture.
