Geek Woman: Have you worked on other games or movies?

Yes, and many are covered by NDA but I can tell you I worked on some games for Nintendo in Kyoto Japan when I was much younger and have worked in the film industry as a VFX producer on movies like Two Weeks Notice and commercials for Arm and Hammer.

Geek Woman: How difficult has it been to break into such a male dominated industry?

I would say Japan is much worse then the states as women are not seen for their technology skills. This may have changed in recent years but was very difficult in the 80's.

On a different note, I have been doing high level math in my head for years and understood physics since I was a child so I had a very good mind for coding software. When I was young though I had to hide what I could do or risk being beat up for being nerdy. I have been beat up a few times for being a girl nerd.

Geek Woman: This is I am sure a terrible memory for you. It is an experience that we both share.  I can not help but ask if it was the girls or the boys who were so intimidated that they had such a violent reaction?

At first the reaction was both girls and boys who actually picked physical fights with me. My mom was unhappy about this as she is traditional Japanese and did not like her little girl fighitng like a boy. As time went by girls punished me harder for it. I found this strange because no matter what happened I thought we shared a certain sisterhood being girls.They just could not relate to me breaking traditional roles. I was not allowed to hang out with popular girls who shunned me. I spent many a days alone and learned to be comfortable with this. The boys weren't much easier but sadly they began to accept who I was and stopped alienating me.  I found myself with more male friends then girlfriends. I vowed when I got older to rectify this situation and keep an open mind when it came to supporting ideas by women especially when it has risk invovled and is outside the normal paradigm.

I think that the doors are opening for women now and that they should defintely consider a career in film or games as technology is making it easier and easier.

In fact, when AMD first came out with the Opteron, I made the decision to go with AMD before many of my male counterparts in the industry. I helped create and design our first pipeline and if you ask any of the men I work with, they are big fans of my choice. AMD is one of the partners that enabled me to do what I am doing.

Geek Woman: What educational background do you have? Are there any suggestions to geeky girls that you would have for those who would like to have a career like yours?

I spent 4 years in college with a degree in "Clinical Psychology" that did not help me much for jobs, so I went back to school to decide what I wanted...I did two years in medical school, one year in law school and a year in a fine arts school in Paris. I also found a creative writing to be a good place to expand my writing skills and took a creative writing class every year in college and highschool.

Articles on WomenGamers.Com solely reflect the experiences and perspectives of the author(s). Feel free to agree or disagree in the accompanying forum thread.