Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman on driving gender equality in the games industry

• Treating gender equality as optional introduces risks particularly in a global industry where women represent nearly half of all players but remain underrepresented in senior leadership roles.
• Women often leave mid-career before reaching senior leadership due to slower promotion rates and limited sponsorship into high-impact roles.
• Structural change including transparent pay frameworks and clear promotion pathways for leadership teams is critical.

The Women in Games Manifesto 2026, which was released back in January, frames fairness not as a moral aspiration but as a strategic necessity.

We speak with Dr Marie-Claire Isaaman, who highlights the consequences of inaction, stating: “If fairness is treated as optional, imbalance becomes embedded, and embedded imbalance carries risk.”

She points to the commercial impact first - women make up nearly half of players globally but remain underrepresented in senior leadership.

“When leadership does not reflect the market, blind spots emerge. Product strategy tilts toward familiar assumptions. Growth segments can be misunderstood or underserved,” Isaaman warns.

Talent retention is also a major issue, as women are often invested in early in their careers only to face barriers later in mid-career. This can stem from unclear progression pathways for promotions and pay, as well as limited support for growing their role.

“The issue is not a lack of talent or ambition. It is a restriction of opportunity, both inside institutions and at the point of entrepreneurial growth,” she explains.

Isaaman notes that companies that treat fairness as optional may find themselves behind the curve. 

The effect on games and players

Inequality behind the scenes shapes both development and the player experience, as Issaaman notes “familiar perspectives are treated as universal, and whole experiences become peripheral”. These assumptions influence not only stories being told but all decisions across development.

“When women and marginalised genders hold senior creative authority, the change isn’t cosmetic. It reshapes the system. Motivation, progression and community design expand because the assumptions behind them expand.”

Diverse leadership, she stresses, is not only about inclusion but also about reliance on commercial and design expertise. Wider lived experience can translate into products, which then travel across markets and resonate with players more broadly.

Moving from intent to action

Isaaman also links diversity directly to innovation and organisational resilience.

“Across industries, research consistently shows that diverse leadership teams make better decisions and deliver stronger financial performance. That’s not about optics, it’s about cognitive range,” she explains.

She goes on to explain that sustainability relies on retaining women in leadership pipelines. “When women exit mid-career at higher rates, leadership continuity weakens and succession pipelines narrow. That instability reduces long-term resilience.”

Another aspect Isaaman is clear about is accountability, stating that “most organisations now recognise that gender pay gaps exist, but recognition alone doesn’t close them”.

She explains that these gaps, along with things like promotions, rely on negotiation rather than clear criteria.

“Fairness and performance are not in tension in well-governed organisations, they reinforce one another.” 

Isaaman states: “Partnership is not sponsorship. It is a shared responsibility for systemic change.”

The Women in Games Partnership Board brings industry leaders, institutional partners and chapters together to coordinate strategy rather than programmes, embedding fairness into the ecosystem rather than treating it as symbolic.

Looking further into 2026, Isaaman urges focus on enabling women to access leadership, sponsorship and capital.

“2026 must be the year we move from intent to enablement. Because when women lead, industries don’t simply become fairer, they become stronger, more intelligent and more resilient. Fairness is not optics. It is about who shapes the future of an industry rooted in the oldest human act: play.”