While there are clear differences in how men and women gamble, the betting and gaming industry is filled with many other gaps between the two, including how they are represented. It is clear for everyone that there are still few female managers in the industry, but this is about to change by looking at the recently created non-profit organizations and initiatives addressing this issue. Microgaming, one of leading software providers for the casino sector, is now joining companies such as IGT, Caesars Entertainment and Paddy Power as a founding member of a new equality and diversity initiative.
This new initiative is called All-In Diversity Project and it is supported by a number of gambling industry giants, the latest of which Microgaming and The Kindred Group. In a release, the project creators announced that the Isle of Man based software development company has joined them as a founding member alongside Caesars Entertainment, the Gaming Innovation Group, IGT and Paddy Power Betfair. The initiative aims at measuring the equality, diversion and inclusion in the gaming and betting sector around the world.
Launched last year, the All-In Diversity Project will collect data through employee surveys and will help companies evaluate their progress towards inclusion in the workplace, the news release says. The initiative will provide annual reports and will make recommendations on how to improve equality in various areas such as recruitment, equal pay, and management. Microgaming chief financial officer John Coleman added that it is essential that companies can identify the “industry-specific barriers” to diversity, as it is what maintains strength and progress.
More Recognition for Women in Gambling
This is not the first project dedicated to increasing equality in the gambling and betting industry. There are a number of initiatives such as Women in Gaming Diversity Awards and Women in Poker Hall of Fame, which celebrate women’s achievements in different employment fields. There are also organizations that offer education and networking for women in sectors they are underrepresented. Among them are Global Gaming Women and Girls in Tech, while the All-In Diversity Project will focus more on research and statistics to offer solutions to issues such as inequality.
There is little research on women leaders in gaming but there are some interesting statistics about women in business. According to data compiled by the global nonprofit organization Catalyst in 2017, one-third of global businesses had no women in senior management roles and the most striking thing is that these figures have not changed since 2011. At this rate, the organization says, women will reach parity with men in 2060. Looking at the largest publicly listed companies in the European Union in 2016, only 15 per cent of executives and 5 per cent of CEOs were women. In the United States, women accounted for nearly half of the workforce (46.8%) but when it comes to senior positions, they were 39.2 per cent of all managers in 2015.
In addition, 85 per cent of board members from Fortune 500 companies are white males. Meanwhile, companies with female representation have shown to perform better and statistics reveal that they have on average 53 per cent higher ROE, 32 per cent higher ROS and 66 per cent higher ROI.
