The PMS Clan, a video game group for women, may sound a tad ominous, but it's successfully capturing the hearts of numerous women gamers around the world. There are quite a few female video game groups that have formed in the past several years, but the PMS Clan boasts to be "the first, largest, and most competitive all-female XBOX LIVE and PS2 ONLINE Clan."
According to the PMS Clan Web site, “PMS is a diverse population of women gamers from all over the world, playing multiple platforms. We are hard-core gamers, sisters, mothers, wives, and daughters and vary from ages, ethicality and social backgrounds. Only one common factor can be found among us and that is our addiction to gaming!” The group also claims, “We strive to combat stereotypes by proving that girl gamers have skill, dedication, and can compete on the same level as the men.”
TechRepublic’s Sonja Thompson had the opportunity to talk to PMS Clan leader Kendra Taylor about her involvement in the group. When asked why she decided to join the PMS Clan instead of any of the other female gaming groups, Kendra responds, “They accepted all female gamers. It wasn’t based on anything like skill… looks... it was just basically your love of gaming, and I knew right away that their group fit me.”
Kendra, who works in IT as a systems engineer, also talks about her experience as a female in the IT industry. “I think that IT industry actually takes women a little bit more seriously [than female gamers]… but I have noticed that some people might not think that I’m very skilled as an IT person because I’m young, for one, and I am female, and you don’t run into very many females, especially in the genre of work that I do. So, it’s more of a 'I have to prove it to you’ kind of thing before you’ll actually listen to anything that I have to say or any advice.”
Find out how Kendra got involved in IT, what she loves most about her job, her biggest tech headache, and the career opportunities she sees in her future. Click the graphic below to listen to the podcast.
