When she arrived in 2009 at the Montreal offices of giant video game publisher Ubisoft, Stephanie Harvey says that she suffered sexual harassment or sexism “from Day One.”
Now a professional gamer and five-time world champion, she said that not only her former employer, but the entire gaming industry is long past due for a major change in culture.
A recent sexual harassment scandal shaking Ubisoft, the leading French video game publisher and one of the biggest names worldwide, is only the tip of the iceberg, the 34-year-old Quebec native said.
Photo: AFP / missharvey, inc
“I’m convinced that what is taking place at Ubisoft is causing huge waves in other companies, because this is not just happening at Ubisoft,” said Harvey, a champion in the Counter-Strike game world, where she is better known by her screen name, “missharvey.”
The movement has taken on “huge dimensions,” she said. “It’s also taking place online, on the Internet, the big streaming companies are being accused, the YouTubers.”
Following a wave of accusations of sexism and harassment against Ubisoft’s leadership — some of the company’s 18,000 employees have described a “climate of terror” — the group dismissed its No. 2, its human resources director and the head of its Canadian studios.
Harvey said that as a top professional player since 2005, her surroundings at Ubisoft were not that different from the gaming environment she knew.
“For me, it wasn’t just a problem with Ubisoft, it was a problem of a men’s world with few women,” she said. “Everything that happened to me, I put it in a box. I thought I was OK with what had happened to me, but then the box opened up again and I’m no longer OK with it.”
Harvey in 2013 cofounded Missclicks, an online community that aims to support women in the gaming sector.
While she was still at Ubisoft, Harvey said that it never occurred to her to complain.
“There was zero confidentiality in human resources at Ubisoft,” she said. “I hope this is only the beginning — that they provide the resources and system in Montreal to allow women to feel more respected.”
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