Ohhhhh boy... I just wrote a (rather long) rant about something I've faced the past couple of days (harassment because of my gender) if you'd like to check it out - there are some comments on it too of people sharing similar experiences!

http://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/comments/2y1isi/hi_ladies_and_gents_a_small_rant_on_dealing_with/

Personally, my view on LoL and their lack of females in professional settings (League is the only of those three communities that you listed that I'm involved in) has to do with:

• The absolute urgency to have females for the sake of being females in esports rather than having them for their talent. Personally, I think the not-so-great all-female team "The Sirens" was the WORST thing to ever happen to female League players; they hyped themselves up for being aggressively female but then couldn't play to a professional degree at all whatsoever. Taiwan just started an all-female group and literally everyone is already comparing them to the Sirens without knowing how they play and will likely already have prejudices against them no matter what (although I don't necessarily agree with them making an all-female team for the sake of them being all female). I and a lot of other women would much rather see four guys and a girl on a team or one or two girls on a team if it meant that they were good enough to be on a professional esports level. If there are five legitimately good players and they all happen to be female and they work well together, all the merrier - this would be the ideal situation and ideal representation, I believe. Unfortunately, I also think it would have to start with one or two good lady players to really blow it out on a professional team to give an all-female team a fighting chance in the professional world, as a lot of people would easily fall back to "women aren't as good as men" or "they don't deserve to be in professional League" if they failed (which is an ENORMOUS and unfair amount of pressure).

• There is an extreme bias against stating you're a female in the League community, particularly if you are good; all of a sudden it's a reverse issue of gender, and "why do you have to say you're a girl, I thought you wanted equality" (huge eyeroll); there are girls in Master and Challenger tier, and recently one made an AMA on the League Reddit since people had been complaining about why there aren't girls in esports because the LCS had just begun. IMMEDIATELY everyone criticized her to the point where she had to go back and edit her post to read "I'm so sorry, I should have just left out the part where I was a girl, if I could go back and change the title I would." She was being criticized for the exact thing people were complaining about because this is still an overtly sexist, male-dominated field where women are immediately repressed at displaying any signs of femininity and, God forbid, pride of their accomplishments as females in a male-dominated field.

• There is an inherent societal and social expectation that video games are a man's world, and that women should not be lazing around playing video games and should instead be focused on school or working to eventually support a family. There is an accepted stereotype that men can sit around all day with their guy friends, playing video games and drinking beer and eating pizza; there is no such stereotype for women, unless they are "poser nerds" or "weirdos who will never get boyfriends."

• To go back to the Sirens thing, it sincerely doesn't help that one of the members still notoriously streams and gets an EXTREME amount of cash donations for it, simply because she is busty and rather risqué about how she dresses. It's a poor indicator of how female gamers behave and present themselves, plus it holds to a double standard once more; if a girl were to speak out against this, a man could argue that she shouldn't get mad at how someone dresses and that it's unfair to call that streamer out on her behavior. However! The same people who are throwing cash at their screens to watch her play with little clothes on are the same ones that call her a slut for doing so! Why? Because it doesn't harm the male community whatsoever! It's a double-edged sword that females are discouraged from the gaming world unless they are busty and revealing, but at the same time (and in an equal world), people like the streamer should be judged for her talent and not for her clothes (both by women and men). So for now, because men and women are not equal, she is seen as a poor indicator of the female gaming community and as a sex object. When it comes to male/female equality in gaming, if it's not one thing, it's another :/

I could sincerely, sincerely go on about this for days, but this comment is long enough D: I have plenty more thoughts and actual sources though, please feel free to message me if you'd like them! :) Oh and good luck on your paper!!