For years parents have been worried that video games would teach their children to be violent or at the very least lazy, but a government-funded study in Sweden is looking to tackle an issue in gaming that until recently was little talked about: sexism.

Dataspelsbranchen, a trade organization that represents the Swedish gaming industry, is conducting a study to determine whether or not games should be labelled for sexist content.

The study was inspired by the Bechdel Test, which  is meant to be an easy way to find gender bias in a fictional work. The Bechdel Test requires that a story have at least two female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.

The labels would only be applied to games developed within Sweden, but the practice could cause other organizations, such as the American Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), to take notice.

The study has not yet determined whether the label would be applied to all games or only to those with positive portrayals of women, a sort of gold star for feminism.

Is it needed?

Sexism is a topic that has dominated video game discussion over the last year, due in large part to the ongoing Gamergate controversy.

Gamergate essentially started as an unruly mob that formed a witch hunt of game developer Zoe Quinn, who was falsely accused by an ex-boyfriend of receiving positive reviews on her game for sleeping with an industry journalist.

While Gamergate has had extremely negative effects, such as believable death threats leveled against several women in the gaming industry who were forced to leave their homes, it has also had the positive effect of arousing greater scrutiny in the way female characters and women in general are portrayed in video games.

“Of course games can be about fantasy but they can be so much more than this,” said the Swedish project’s manager, Anton Albiin. “They can also be a form of cultural expression – reflecting society or the society we are hoping for. Games can help us to create more diverse workplaces and can even change the way we think about things.”