As part of our extended International Women's Day coverage, PocketGamer.biz is spotlighting talented women from the games industry throughout the week and beyond.

Nicole Hartvig David, Vice president of marketing at Zynga, spoke with PocketGamer.biz on the challenges working parents face, encouraging girls into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects, and how inclusive activities can improve gender representation.

PocketGamer.biz: You have been with Zynga for nine years. How has the company changed within this time?

Hartvig David: During my time working at Zynga, I have seen significant changes around conversations about gender, which have led to company-wide actions. The Women at Zynga employee resource group has led mentorship programs, hosted inspirational external speakers, and facilitated internal events and professional opportunities. The paternity and maternity policies are very generous and offer parents the time they need to bond and care for their newborns.

Zynga is also committed to working with schools and colleges to support and inspire young girls and women, with the hopes of inspiring them to someday join the gaming industry. These actions have all had a positive impact but there is still work to be done and we need to remain committed to stemming gender bias and investing in our female employees.

How, if at all, does managing a team comprising predominantly of women differ from a male-dominated team?

My working style is very collaborative with a strong emphasis on communication, respect, and trust. I can count on everyone on the team to bring their best self to work while I do my best to support them when they need it, either at work or in their personal lives. I don’t feel any gender differences in the way I manage my team. Diversity and inclusion are a guiding principle for me and I work hard to ensure that everyone on the team feels respected and supported regardless of their gender, race, religion, age, etc.

What have you been able to do to create female-led and inclusive teams at Zynga, and what needs to happen before this becomes the norm?

I am fortunate to work in marketing where there is generally a higher representation of women in contrast to roles in product management, engineering, and game design. When hiring, my focus has always been to find the best talent for the job, with an emphasis on personalities and working styles to ensure candidates will be a good fit for my team’s culture. While I didn’t set a goal to hire more women, I was very fortunate to find many highly-qualified female candidates to join the team. The men on my team are just as qualified and inspiring to work with and I believe that this diversity is what makes us so strong.

For roles in which we see only male applicants, we will work to close the gender gap. In one instance, it was instructive when a male manager on my team, who is a father to a young girl, noticed the lack of women in one area so he proactively sourced female candidates to ensure his group was diverse.

Awareness and proactive measures can help us get closer to stemming the gender gap in gaming. But when it comes to disparity in STEM, where female representation is at a significant disadvantage, this approach is not enough. STEM fields are often viewed as masculine, and educators and even parents often underestimate girls’ maths abilities starting as early as preschool. As a society, we need to work harder to change gender stereotypes by encouraging, empowering, and exposing girls to maths, science, and coding classes at schools at an early age.

To attract more women in gaming, we need to ensure that they are equally represented as the face of the industry to inspire and help open doors to younger generations of girls and women.

One powerful example that illustrates how some women feel in the industry was shared with me by a female candidate during an interviewing process. As the only woman in her entire department at her gaming company, she was in disbelief that the entire interviewing panel at Zynga consisted of women. To our surprise, we had not noticed that we had put together an all-women panel. This serves as a reminder to all of us that candidates want to feel a human connection and a sense of belonging, which makes diversity and inclusion so critical.

Unlike other gaming categories, women are equally represented within the mobile player base, but there remains a lack of women within the industry. What can be done to encourage more women to enter the industry?

We need to first acknowledge the gender gap and gender bias and proactively work to make a difference. Female leadership is critical in order to help attract female talent and act as role models and mentors who can set an example for success. We need to ensure that women are well represented as the face of gaming. Seeing women doing interviews and participating in panels will help set the example and encourage others to do the same.

On the hiring front, taking a proactive approach and sourcing female candidates can make a difference. It’s also important to acknowledge that women are less likely to apply for a role unless they feel like they’ve met all of the requirements, which can put them at a disadvantage.

Within the games industry, women gravitate towards positions including legal, advertising and marketing, and administration, rather than developer positions such as coding and production. What can be done to encourage more women into the developer side?

Female leadership representation is critical. I have been fortunate to work and partner with talented and inspiring women at Zynga who lead tech teams, game creative development teams, and production teams. There is a large gender gap but if companies continue to spotlight women and feature them in speaking events and internal panels, these measures can encourage other women to do the same.

To truly make a difference in the long run, we need to change the stereotypes and encourage more young girls to pursue careers in STEM. Zynga has recently partnered with organisations, including Girls Who Code, Women in Games, Unherd, Code.org, Project Glimmer, and Fairygodboss, to help educate young girls about the field and to support women’s professional trajectories, equipping them with tools and skills and pairing them with supportive mentors.

Women are severely penalised when it comes to parenthood: both being judged for prioritising their careers, and suffering career setbacks when choosing to have children. What has been your experience as a working parent, and what provisions need to take place to better support women?

Being a working mom is an ongoing challenge that is filled with constant guilt. The multi-tasking and stress is never ending, something I believe all working moms can relate to. No matter what you do, you often feel like you are either letting your kids down or not giving your work the 110 per cent that you would like. But, thanks to the support of my husband and Zynga, I am able to juggle work and life without sacrificing one or the other.

I have been supported beyond words by my husband and I couldn’t have done it without him. Unfortunately, this isn’t the norm for many women and we need to advocate for paternal benefits as well to ensure that they can be equally active partners.

Zynga has been extremely supportive by offering employees many benefits, such as maternity and paternity leave, child care, and inclusive activities that allow children to attend. I would encourage all companies to do the same and celebrate the parenthood of their employees.

Having working moms in leadership positions will help set the example and normalise it. Throughout the years, I have stopped being ashamed of my motherhood and the responsibilities that go along with it. Instead, I have taken a proactive approach where I openly speak about my personal challenges. If my girls are off-school, I will take time off to spend quality time together and if they are sick, I adapt my schedule to make it all work. In the current working environment, I am able to stay connected and remove blockers even when I am officially off. Having these options in a very fast-paced work environment helps reduce my stress levels.

Above all, flexibility and trust are critical for working moms. Working moms require flexibility to make it all work but it’s doable. If companies provide a safe, respectful and flexible work environment, they will gain all the benefits that these working moms have to offer. Companies would benefit greatly if they stopped looking at the hours worked and instead focus on the quality, creativity, and efficiency gained.