MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The Women in Games Awards is just three months away now. And while we love its big-day celebration of womens’ huge contribution to the industry, it’s the work done all-year round by champions throughout the industry that makes a big difference for women working within it.
To that end we reached out to Unity’s Hannah Jay Rees, who is helping us judge this year’s entries, in order to learn more about her work as co-chair of the Women CommUnity ERG (Employee Resource Group) at Unity.
“At Unity Technologies, Inclusion is driven by the framework of empathy, respect, & opportunity. In a year as challenging as 2020, we know how crucial it is to come together to support each other, recognize each others’ achievements, and celebrate so many amazing women in the gaming industry. Unity is proud to partner with the MCV/Develop Women In Games Awards. This year, we are particularly proud to sponsor the Technical Impact of the Year Award.
Rees explains for us the work and purpose of the ERG: “Creating a sense of community is part of the work of inclusion at Unity. Across our teams and with our people around the world, we have worked to build and expand support for our employee resource groups, also known as ERGs. The Women commUnity ERG at Unity is working hard to create community by focusing on professional development, recruitment & retention, and engaging women and marginalized genders both at Unity and in the broader world we live in.”
And how the Women commUnity ERG works with other ERGs across the organisation to pursue common goals of inclusivity.
“Unity is working hard to create community by focusing on professional development, recruitment & retention, and engaging women and marginalized genders”
“As the co-chair of the Women commUnity ERG, I have the privilege of working with our Inclusion Team to advance the critical work of creating a more inclusive workspace. It is part of our commUnity mission to, ‘foster a safe community where people can freely exchange ideas, experiences and find ways to uplift each other. As a group we also want to increase awareness of gender issues at the workplace,’ and collaborate across all commUnity ERGs at Unity to empower women, non-binary, gender fluid, female presenting folks, and marginalized genders.”
And a lot of work comes is achieved by empathy and listening, Rees tells us:
“In the Women commUnity, we know our work is vital. We are showing empathy for others, listening to understand instead of listening to respond, and sharing that same empathy with ourselves. We are asking what respect means to others, and communicating what respect means to us. We are creating onramps to opportunity, enabling women and marginalized genders to lead, grow, and take on projects in a fair and equitable way.
“This is the work we do as women at Unity. This is the work of Inclusion at Unity. Through empathy, respect, & opportunity, we ensure that all of us feel that sense of community. In any other year, in any other context, this work would be challenging. But with community, we know we can meet this challenge, and create a more inclusive workplace for all women.”
We’re incredibly pleased to be working in association with Unity, and its ‘Made with Unity’ initiative, on this year’s awards, and we hope to learn a lot from Unity’s and Rees experience during the process.
