This Sunday, March 8th, is International Women’s Day, which is the perfect occasion to sit and have a nice wonder about the absolute state of everything in our male-dominated games and tech industry.
Paradox are marking the day with some free DLC for Europa Universalis IV that honours the contributions of women to, well, all of history leading up to this very moment. The Women’s History DLC adds one hundred great women to the game, partly redressing the existing gender imbalance in their nation-building strategy epic.
The women will pop up around certain event triggers to do their thing. Queen Elizabeth I, Caterina Sforza (whom you may remember from Assassin’s Creed), Lucrezia Borgia and Sophie Germain are all in, while female advisors can now appear in place of male counterparts.
“It’s no surprise that the role of women in history isn’t as well known as that of men,” says Thomas Johansson, head of Paradox Development Studio. “Europa Universalis, admittedly, hasn’t done a lot to foreground their contributions. We thought that International Women’s Day was the best time to do a little bit to help balance the scales and introduce our audience to some very interesting people.”
Well done everybody. The Women’s History DLC will be available to download on March 8th.