A recent survey done by the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) boasts that a staggering 38% of all gamers are female! Spending an average 7 hours a week playing games. According to Nbc4.com, 30% of all online gamers are women, with the catagory of "women 40 and over" making up the largest percentage of online gamers across all online games.

< In a separate survey, Sony Online Entertainment found that 60% of all females in the gaming industry found the male dominance in the field off-putting in their career making decisions. Sadly, only 12% of the gaming industry workforce is female.

The Senior Vice President of SOE Global Sales , Torrie Dorrell, commented: "Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters. What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."

Microsoft.com claims that 41.9% of windows platform-based gamers are female as well, making the PC the most popular weapon of choice among gaming women. In addition to that, 50% of all The Sims players are women, as well as 25% of the development team for that game. The Sims boasts the largest amount of female players out of any other game on the market.

So there you have it, encouraging statistics that show more females playing games, and hopefully more females in the business of gaming. Sources: www.gamasutra.com , www.microsoft.com, www.nbc4.com ,www.msnbc.msn.com