Woman's Hour special: Women and gaming

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In July Woman's Hour took a deep dive into the world of women and gaming. It’s an industry worth more than music, TV and film combined, with women making up almost half of gaming audiences. So we explored all aspects of it by hearing from gamers, creators, leaders and gamechangers in the industry. Nuala McGovern discussed the current situation for women with games reporter Frankie Ward and Twitch streamer Alyska, headed out to meet some of the women from Black Girl Gamers to find out more about the impact games have had on their lives, and heard from two women working in the industry - Charu Desodt and Tara Mustapha. Plus, she was joined by 76-year-old Fortnite streamer Cath Bowie, to discuss breaking boundaries through gaming. Later on in the series, Anita Rani was joined by BBC Technology Reporter Zoe Kleinman and game designer Emily Mitchell to find out more about the wider influence of gaming in society and on conversations around mental health. Plus, she brought together a panel of industry voices - Marie-Claire Isaaman, Stephanie Ijoma and Nick Poole - to discuss what needs to change to make it a more inclusive and safe space. In this special podcast episode, Nuala McGovern brings you all the stories from throughout the series, so you can catch up on anything you might have missed. Presenters: Nuala McGovern + Anita Rani Producer: Erin Downes

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Sing Sing and I'm Simon Jack. And Good Bad Billionaire is back. It's the podcast
0:06.2	exploring the lives and livelihoods of some of the world's richest people, but this time there's
0:10.6	a twist. On Good Bad Dead billionaire, we are looking back on the lives of some titans of
0:15.6	US industry. Like the first ever billionaire, John D. Rockefeller. The founder of the Ford
0:20.3	Motor Company, Henry Ford.
0:21.9	And the First Lady of Wall Street, Hetty Green.
0:24.3	And Simon and I are asking you if they were good, bad or just another billionaire.
0:28.4	Good bad billionaire.
0:29.5	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:32.4	Hello, I'm Nula McGovern.
0:34.5	Woman Zara spent a week diving into the world of women and gaming,
0:38.4	exploring all aspects of it by hearing from gamers, creators and leaders.
0:43.4	So you can get a full picture. We've brought together all five episodes for you to listen and enjoy.
0:50.1	Gaming is an industry worth more than music, TV and film combined.
0:54.9	The UK video game market was valued at £7.82 billion in 2023.
1:01.4	Throughout our series, we headed out to explore and find out what gaming means to women.
1:06.1	We spoke to those working in the industry and gathered a panel of voices to discuss what
1:11.2	needs to change to make the gaming world a more inclusive and safer space.
1:16.4	To kick us off, we wanted to find out more about the impact gaming has on women's lives.
1:21.1	I was joined by video game reporter and esports presenter Frankie Ward and Alice, a video game
1:27.0	streamer on a platform called Twitch.
1:29.2	She's also known online as Alyska.
	...

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