Until yesterday, Elon Musk didn’t follow any women on Twitter. Plenty of men, plenty of companies, but not a single woman. This was originally pointed out by Motherboard, which prompted Musk—aka, the man trying to send the first humans to Mars—to make his 55th follow Caity Weaver of GQ Magazine. He now follows one woman on Twitter.
The Guardian picked up the story by Motherboard and ran with it, pursuing an examination of the tech leaders of the world to see how many women each of them followed on Twitter. Out of the accounts The Guardian looked at, the most women any of them followed was 39, and that was Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO, who follows 78 men out of 165 accounts total. A trend arises from the results: Tim Cook, Apple CEO, follows 20 men and four women; Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, follows 238 men and 21 women; Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO, follows 58 men and 12 women; Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, follows 57 men and 12 women; Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, follows 44 men and 10 women.
None of this really comes as a surprise given how the locus of tech companies, Silicon Valley, is overwhelmingly a place for men. And while you could pick at this examination of something as ostensibly insignificant as a person’s Twitter account, it’s telling that “the world reflected in their Twitter timelines is bizarrely similar to the bizarre societies they have created in their companies: very, very male,” as The Guardian put it.
Considering all this, it seems like a good idea to compile a list of women who, not only these tech leaders can follow, but for anyone interested in videogames to follow. We could all probably do with following more women in games, right? Here’s the list:
Lea Schönfelder – @LeaSchonfelder – website
Megan Fox – @glassbottommeg – website
Kara Stone – @karaastone – website
Liz Ryerson – @ellaguro – website
Kellee Santiago – @KelleeSan – website
Chelsea Saunders – @PIXELATEDCROWN – website
Carol Mertz – @carolmertz – website
Jenny Jiao Hsia – @q_dork – website
Lily Zone – @neon_mask – website
Ana Todica – @themasquerader – LinkedIn
Delphine Fourneau – @dzifyr – website
Amy Dentata – @AmyDentata – website
Michelle Juett Silva – @Shelldragon – website
Natalia Figueroa – @Urania_Orwell – website
Claire Hummel – @shoomlah – website
Brianna Wu – @Spacekatgal – website
Vaida Plankyte – @underskinnyhrt – website
Siobhan Reddy – @siobhanreddy – website
Emily Short – @emshort – website
Amora Bettany – @amora_b – website
Robin Hunicke – @hunicke – website
Jane Ng – @thatJaneNg – website
Mare Sheppard – @MareSheppard – website
Olivia White – @owlcavedev – website
Jana Reinhardt – @RottenHedgehog – website
Rachel Simone Weil – @partytimeHXLNT – website
Tabby Rose – @TabbyRose – website
Anna Anthropy – @adult_witch – website
Lily Nishita – @lazerlily – website
Cornelia Geppert – @CorneliaGeppert – website
Janet Gilbert – @JanetRGilbert – website
Lucy Morris – @lucyamorris – website
Erin Reynolds – @reynoldsphobia – website
Marie Rx – @Marie_Rx – website
Porpentine – @slimedaughter – website
Nathalie Lawhead – @alienmelon – website
Lorri Hopping – @HoppingFun – website
Christine Love – @christinelove – website
Kitty Horrorshow – @kittyhorrorshow – Patreon
Martina – @SantoroMartina – website
Natalie Juhasz – @Resulka – website
Nicole Lazzaro – @NicoleLazzaro – website
Julia Keren-Detar – @quiltingcrow – website
Aevee Bee – @MammonMachine – website
Lisa Brown – @Wertle – website
Mattie Brice – @xMattieBrice – website
Hannah Bown – @bownbear – website
Arielle Grimes – @slimekat – website
Samantha Kalman – @SamanthaZero – website
Paloma Dawkins – @Palomadawkins – website
Katharine Neil – @haikus_by_KN – website
Charlotte Gore – @CharlotteGore – website
Alicia Fortier – @TotallyNotBot – website
Cécile Brun – @AtelierSento – website
Karla Zimonja – @zusty – website
Jennifer Schneidereit – @nyyjen – website
Liselore Goedhart – @lizzywanders – website
Zoe Quinn – @UnburntWitch – website
Laura Shigihara – @supershigi – website
Kate Craig – @koalaparty – website
Sophie Houlden – @S0phieH – website
Erin Robinson Swink – @Livelyivy – website
Carly Kocurek – @sparklebliss – website
Brenda Laurel – @blaurel – website
Dragica Kahlina – @gluggergames – website
Merritt Kopas – @merrittk – website
Sarah Lisa Vogl – @SaraLisaVogl – website
Catt Small – @cattsmall – website
Terra Lauterbach – @rotten_tater – website
Dajana Dimovska – @DajanaDimovska – website
Na’Tosha Bard – @natosha_bard – website
Stav Goldstein – @StavGoldstein – website
Nicole He – @nicolehe – website
Lianne Booton – @Liannethy – website
Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris – @MituK – website
Nina Freeman – @hentaiphd – website
Sarah Hiebl – @SarahHiebl – website
Charlotte Madelon – @CharlieMadelon – website
Andi McClure – @mcclure111 – website
Auriea Harvey – @auriea – website
Llaura DreamFeel – @dreamfeelx – website
Amy Hennig – @amy_hennig – Wikipedia
Hannah Nicklin – @hannahnicklin – website
Adriel Wallck – @MsMinotaur – website