LinkedIn Games celebrates International Women’s Day

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It’s International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the achievements of women worldwide, whether it be culturally, economically, or politically. In addition, each year has a specific theme, such as “Invest in women: Accelerate progress” in 2024. The theme for 2025 is #AccelerateAction, which highlights the importance of being proactive in making moves that help further gender equality. According to a 2024 report from the World Economic Forum? , it will take 133 years to reach full gender parity — that’s five generations from now, in 2158. #AccelerateAction urges us to take measures to speed up the rate of progress.?

There are ways we can speed that progress along in our daily lives (the International Women’s Day website has a list of events and resources), but what about when we play games? Here are a few puzzle-and-game-adjacent organizations and initiatives that you can support:

JIGGY puzzles: A female-founded jigsaw puzzle company that highlights work from emerging female artists as the images on the puzzles (some of you might recognize the company from its pitch on Shark Tank).?

Inkubator Crosswords: An initiative that ran from 2019 to 2023, aimed at reducing the gender imbalance in crossword puzzle authorship. The crossword puzzle subscription service has since deactivated, but they’ve released a book of favorite puzzles.

Women in Games: A non-profit aimed at achieving gender equality in the games industry. The organization offers social gatherings and networking events, as well as online communities on Facebook and Discord to facilitate connection.

BroadcastHER: An initiative run by the 1,000 Dreams Fund aimed at financially supporting women who are interested in gaming, broadcasting, and content creation roles. A recent press release from the 1,000 Dreams Fund announced that the fund will be putting on a fundraiser via Twitch to raise funds for the 2025 iteration of the BroadcastHER Grant.

[NOTE: The recap of this week’s puzzles will include spoilers for today’s puzzles. If you haven’t solved them yet, go here and come back when you’re done!]

?? Pinpoint: You might have noticed that all the puzzles for today are tied into International Women’s Day. Let’s start with the Pinpoint, which let you know about the tie-in with the very first clue:

Let’s see the logo for International Women’s Day:

Looking at the logo, the category can only be a few things (things with arrows, things with circles, purple things). All you need is to look at the other clues to confirm that the category is purple things.?

Incidentally, the International Women’s Day website has more information about the colors used. The official colors of International Women’s Day are purple, green, and white, though green isn’t present in the logo. According to the website, purple in the logo “signifies justice and dignity, and being loyal to the cause.”

Play today’s Pinpoint?

?? Crossclimb: The Crossclimb puzzle for today, meanwhile, reveals the International Women’s Day tie-in at the very end, asking you to fill in a quote relevant to the holiday:

The full quote is, “As women achieve power, the barriers will fall.” Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, said this in a speech given at a Washington University conference themed around “Women in Power.” O’Connor continued, “As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.”

Play today’s Crossclimb?

?? Queens: The Queens puzzle for today included a visual tribute to the celebration, with the region in the center shaped like the female gender symbol (♀). Note that the region is also purple, as an additional reference to International Women’s Day.

Play today’s Queens

?? Tango: Finally, as we like to do for special occasions, the Tango puzzle replaced the usual sun and moon with relevant emojis. In this case, the emojis are a purple heart (colored the same way as the International Women’s Day logo) and an icon of the earth (emphasizing the global nature of the celebration).

Incidentally, if you solved this puzzle or the Queens before today’s Pinpoint, the presence of the purple heart or the large purple ♀ section may have tipped you off to the Pinpoint solution. If this happened to you, let me know in the comments.

Play today’s Tango

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This week’s topic: Women in games — who do you want to thank?

I’ve been lucky enough to make a career in puzzles and games, which isn’t something I thought would be possible when I entered the job market. Along the way, I’ve worked with a number of incredible women, who I’d love to thank. Many shoutouts to Kelsey Dixon (my great editor at the Atlantic), Kate Chin Park, Sara Nies, and Mollie Cowger (my equally great editors at the New Yorker), Wyna Liu (my co-editor for the AV Club crossword, and an invaluable source of advice), and Ashley Botarelli (my manager on LinkedIn Games — thank you for everything you do, including proofreading this newsletter! Feel free to use your editorial privilege to add as many compliments as you want). There are so many more women I could thank, so here as well is a blanket “thank you” to everyone whose name I didn’t mention.

Who do you want to thank on International Women’s Day?

Share your thoughts in the comments below??

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