Gender Bias Article Round-Up

In the last month, there have been an unusual number of articles published surrounding gender bias in theatre, particularly concerning playwrights and directors.

It’s been an eye-opener following the debate.  We thought we’d make it a little easier for you to follow along.

for The Unordered Mind. Look to the right of your screen under the heading Where Women Stand.  We’ve linked to all the really interesting articles.  The most recent is on the top of the list.  We threw in a couple oldies but goodies too.  Take your pick and read on.

for the Ordered Mind.

• Where the Boys Are: At the Podium. Laura Collins-Hughes blogs about the lack of female Tony Award winners.  Her point:  “It’s no wonder that women win so few Tonys, given how little high-profile, high-paying work they’re hired to do….Credits beget credits, and when awards are won, work is sure to follow. Which makes it a whole lot easier to earn a living — a privilege that shouldn’t be disproportionately reserved, even inadvertently, for the guys.”
• What Women Want. by Alexis Greene for Theatre Communications Group.  She explores the history of New York City’s Women’s Project and how it fits into the theatre community and culture.  Written back in 2008, it’s entirely relevant today, “Cultural patterns that stymie women’s parity with men in the theatre are harder to discuss than economic ones, because they involve complex issues such as comfort with power and self-aggrandizement, gender stereotyping and contemporary attitudes toward feminism.”
• The Rarest Role in Musicals?  The Female Director. published by the Washington Post.  Featuring Marcia Milgrom Dodge, the first ever women to be hired by the Kennedy Center to direct a major musicle.  Yes, the first.   Peter Marks writes, “It might be surprising that in 2009, women are still having to grope their way to the power seat in an artistic field such as theater.”
• Report on the Status of Women: A Limited Engagement? published by the Fund for Women Artists.  All the sad stats you can swallow including the now ubiquitous 20% (although it seems to range anywhere from 15% to 20% depending on the specific kind of artist–playwright, director, producor–and the year of the study) employment rate.
• Who’s in Charge of this Show?  She Is. Published by the New York Times.  Judith Ivey has been hired to direct Vanities: A New Musical at Second Stage Theater.  The Article, of course, encompases the gender debate, “This has been something of a banner year for female directors in New York, a development that wouldn’t be worth noting if it weren’t so rare.”
• Female Playwrights find it’s Still a Man’s World. A recent study done by student, Emily Glassberg Sands.  She discovered that yes, indeed, fewer plays written by women are being produced.   Of course, as it turns out, fewer plays written by women are being submitted for review in the first place.  And, perhaps not surprisingly, the trend continues not just because of the men in charge, but also the women.  We are not immune to our own cultural standards.
• Gender Bias in Theatre: The Women in Charge React. Chicago TimeOut took this opportunity to talk to nine different women in charge.  Perhaps the most interesting observation to take away is that each of them felt the need not just to discuss this new study, but to defend their own theatres.

We want the conversations to continue to please add a comment with any good links we may have missed.