Bonnie Ross, the head of Microsoft's dedicated Halo studio 343 Industries, has shared her thoughts on the difficulty of recruiting women in games development, and how she thinks educators could address the gender gap. In an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes, Ross said she would love to bring more women onto the Halo team.
"Boys and men, the numbers are moving up. We are getting a lot more into computer science. But with women and girls, it's going down," she said. "In many times there's not even a way where I could bring a woman into a specific job because the candidates are just not there."
Ross went on to point out that because women are so in-demand at tech companies, the market is very competitive for recruiting them. She cited that women with computer science degrees who intern at Microsoft are sometimes offered full positions, but already have offers from 5-7 other big tech companies.
"These women, basically they open every door because we all want them, and there's so few of them, and they're amazingly talented," she said. "There's just not that many of them.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/halo-boss-wants-to-close-gender-gap-in-game-develo/1100-6465331/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/halo-head-bonnie-ross-diversity-attracts-diversity-60-minutes/