Gender and the two-tiered system of collegiate esports

ABSTRACT

Collegiate esports in the U.S. and Canada have grown tremendously over the past decade, through intensive investments by both universities and esports publishers. Although post-secondary institutions are believed to offer more hospitable conditions for gender-inclusive esports than professional scenes, the institutionalization of collegiate esports might be transforming these conditions. Drawing from 21 interviews with leaders of both esports clubs and varsity programs in North America, this article describes a two-tiered system of collegiate esports in which opportunities for cultivating greater gender diversity are found primarily among esports clubs, student-run and often precarious. Well-funded varsity programs, by contrast, remain overwhelmingly male-dominated, a disparity held in place by efforts within these programs to recruit—rather than develop—highly skilled players.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• university
• collegiate
• esports
• inclusivity

Notes

1  For communication scholars concerned about issues of inclusivity in post-secondary contexts, there’s an interesting parallel here to be made between the alleged lack of top female-identified collegiate esports talent the response given by the National Communication Association, to critiques of its lack of racial diversity among its Distinguished Scholars by invoking the “meritocratic” principles of the honor; there’s just no suitable candidates of color, apparently, and hence, #CommunicationSoWhite. Both instances are characterized by a lack of attention on the part of leadership to the structural and systemic conditions that prevent deserving prospects from being deemed worthy of recognition (Chakravartty et al., 2018).