Gender bias in theatre.

There is a great article here about gender bias in American theatre, where the majority of plays staged are by male authors. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about the findings presented in the article. Do you think there's a problem of gender bias here in Australia? What can we do? What should we do?

That's bloody weird - I'm not registered at the NY Times and the link works fine for me. How strange. The bit in the article that surprised me the most: For the second study, Ms. Sands sent identical scripts to artistic directors and literary managers around the country. The only difference was that half named a man as the writer (for example, Michael Walker), while half named a woman (i.e., Mary Walker). It turned out that Mary’s scripts received significantly worse ratings in terms of quality, economic prospects and audience response than Michael’s. The biggest surprise? “These results are driven exclusively by the responses of female artistic directors and literary managers,” Ms. Sands said. Amid the gasps from the audience, an incredulous voice called out, “Say that again?” Ms. Sands put it another way: “Men rate men and women playwrights exactly the same.”

I can't get on line there either but the issues raises interesting points. I am particularly fascinated by the point that women are tougher on women than men are and that men seem to judge more evenly. Interesting point. There have been some good women writers in this country, Alma De Groen and Jill Shearer immediately spring to mind, I never liked Dorothy Hewitt personally. I must admit to being a bit out of touch with the eastern states so I don't know who is around at the moment. Here in SA we have a number of women writers in SAWT and certainly do not differentiate between men and women in our program The other issue in my mind is the dearth of good roles for women, particularly once they pass about 30. Various women who work with me suggest I write good women and my focus is moving to more and more women in my scripts. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

Having reread the post above I realise just how sparse the number of women writers must be in this country if I can only think readily of three. I am going to do some research. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

I had this discussion just the other day, when I noted that a number of leading west australian female playwrights have used male leads, and a higher proportion of male actors in their plays. I also noted, that in my own writing I often find it hard not to write for a male lead...something that struck me as decidedly odd. My friend and I discussed and debated this concept for some time. In the end we came to the conclusion that a lot of it has to do with audience perception. Work, whether plays, books or movies, written by women about women are perceived as being only for women. Unless they are about action figures, or criminals they are labelled as chic lit/chic flicks and only worthy of female attention. Whereas work written about men, are considered relevant to both genders. Harry Potter, written by a female, male lead. If it had a female lead, what's a bet it would have been relegated to 'girls only?' So as a female writer, working in community theatre, dealing with more female actors than male actors, is it any wonder I write male leads? That is, if I want an audience to attend...

Something I've done more than once in my own writing is write the play, and then spontaneously swap the genders of half the characters, then re-read it to see if it still reads sensibly. If it does (and it almost always does), then I leave it with the new re-assigned genders.

Interesting, I am a man and I tend to write female leads. I wonder if that is why I have trouble getting my plays done or are they crap. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

It sounds like a great idea, but I like writing women who are in fact women. One of the sad consequences of modern feminism was for women to feel they had to behave like men in order to achieve their goals or gain respect. How many female politicians are very feminine? At the end of the day men and women are very, very, very different. We think incredibly differently, process the world differently, respond to crisis and problems differently, therefore deal with conflict in a dramatic context differently. If female writers are being discriminated against, the utter loss, the great tragedy is that the difference is lost. Who wants to go to the theater just to here the same old perspective? Art is about experiencing something from an alien perspective to your own, yet still connecting, relating to it. If we only ever embrace art that expresses our own opinions, feelings, viewpoints and processes we might as well be reading our diary's or talking to the mirror. Of course I do write character driven work most of the time. When I write professionally for children's theater, the character genders can and often do have to be swapped around...simply due to the resources of the theater companies I work for, so I am not criticizing at all the concept of gender neutral characters. Just pointing out that the answer to discrimination isn't necessarily pretending everyone is the same, but having the courage to embrace differences.

I've just succeeded in logging on and read the reader comments as well as the article. Makes interesting reading. Just as a matter of interest are plays less popular if the protagonist is a woman. And how many women write plays with male protagonists. My favourite woman playwright is actually Caryl Churchill for a number of reasons and she certainly focuses on women as her protagonists. I would have thought that if you are writing generally for community theatre then you should write principally for women as they certainly out number men in that area. (Please no-one take this as criticism it is a thought and an observation only). Women seem to either equal or outnumber men as directors in the world of community theatre, how do the women directors among us select the plays they do and do they feel that their audiences prefer male to female protagonists. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

Elizabeth Jolley and Gwen Harwood are the two others that I can think of... Mind you, how many male australian writers can you name? I can still name more men but not many more...

I'm not saying I don't do rewrites once I've changed the characters! A lot of it comes down to the actor as well. I was in a production of Hamlet once with a female Horatio, and the same lines develop a very different feel when performed by a woman. That's just one example. Richard III is another.

Interesting isn't it. David Williamson Lewis Esson Alec Buzo Jack Davis (Indigenous) Jack Hibberd Alan Seymour Ray Lawler Sumner Locke Elliot (although he mostly worked in the states) Clem Gorman Louis Nowra Stephen House Steven J Spears Sean Riley To my shame that's all I can think of without cheating and very few of them are currently working. I resisted putting myself on the list. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

Seems painfully obviously, but no one has listed her yet. Currently winning awards and getting a lot of work, at least locally. Although the seed is the only one with a female lead, the web and the danger age both had male leads. Then locally, there is also Kate Rice, Polly Low and lets not forget Jenny Davis.

I simply couldn't remember her name. Sorry I also forgot Patrick White on my male list. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

In the males there's Reg Cribb, and in western australia ingle knight and noel o'neil...

Joanna Murray-Smith is another I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet.

That's to assume Jess that all women think the same way and all men think the same way... Or that a man cannot have a feminine mind nor a woman a masculine. Actually the whole crux of the gender bias debate is flawed because it makes the assumption that sex and gender are the same thing. Why should the gender of the writer impact perspective anyway? Surely if it's a truly good play it's about hummanity not just the "secret" lives of men or women. As a case in point "The Big Picture" was recently performed by PTC and was by a female author, with three female leads and directed by a woman. Yet, as a man, the production still rang true because I was able to identify with the essential hummanity of the characters. Their gender was not so much of a concern as was how they reacted to their social situation. To me this is an exemplar of excellent writing. I'm not by any means arguing that you couldn't give a gendered reading of that play; you can give a gendered reading of any text. Essentially for me I don't give a rats about gender bias. I don't judge a play by the sex of it's author nor its protagonist. If it's a good play, then it's a good play. If it's an awful play, then it's an awful play. I also find it difficult to believe, given the somewhat liberal politics of theatre companies and the arts in general, that anyone would discriminate against a playwright based on their gender.

I also find it difficult to believe, given the somewhat liberal politics of theatre companies and the arts in general, that anyone would discriminate against a playwright based on their gender. Yet this is what the study has found, although it does seem as if it's an unconscious process rather than any kind of active, deliberate discrimination.

Its not just in theatre - I wrote a short film script under the name "A V Malcolm" and submitted it to a TV station's short film initiative, they assumed I was a male and my script was shortlisted with other professional writers!! When I submitted the same script to our local funding body - they met with me, found out I was a middle-aged woman, and even with sudstantial re-writes, it was not deemed good enough for an emerging screen writers grant. Of course, one cannot prove it had anything to do with gender or age - but it was a very interesting experiment!

And here in America, if you are from the south you pretty much have to have a funny name to be a lady writer; Flanery O'Conner, Eudora Whelty, Carson McCullers, Harper Lee.... You never know what's comin' for you.

Harper Lee is a woman? www.meltheco.org.au

*facepalm*

Has anyone considered Hannie Rayson. Her play "Inheritance" is an intense and moving piece of Australian drama?

As a female writer, I do find there is a certain resistance to the subjects I write about - people seem to become very uncomfortable hearing about 'the female experience'(although I obviously just think of it in terms of 'the human experience' - it just happens to be a female human). The other night I told my boyfriend I was attending 'Singular Women' downstairs at the Maj, and he joked that it would just be about 'my period, and my husband doesn't listen, and it hurt so much when I had a baby'. Although it was a joke, it did rather summarise how unwilling we are to be confronted by the voice of a minority. That's right, I said minority - because isn't that the type of reaction we have to shows about race, or perhaps, religion? I was a little surprised to find that the monologues were all written by a man... so, no, they weren't about periods, but I actually don't think they provided any insight into 'the female experience' or even 'the human experience' at all. I found them all a little stereotypical, verging on offensively so. When we write for another gender, do we tend to over-generalise (if that's even a possible concept)? Do we think we are being specific but we are simply writing what we assume to be the truth of another person's existence? Obviously, though, this could apply to writing about anyone other than ourselves... I do think it does occur quite a lot that we write stereotypically for another gender, race, or age - perhaps it is the mark of a good writer when this doesn't happen? Is this why certain writers appeal to us or are more successful than others? Something I've also noticed in Perth is the success of male directors over female directors. This is obviously starting to change with our two prominent theatre companies now sporting female artistic directors, but on a smaller level, there seems to be a lot of female directors who aren't given as much trust or acknowledgement as their male counterparts. I could also extend this to the comedy scene. The ratio of male to female comic performers is immediately noticeable. And I admit, I personally tend to prefer male comedians over female comedians. They tend to have a certain energy, a ruthlessness or drive that women often lack. (Generalising here of course, keeps your pants on - irony intended) The women who stand out tend to have that drive. I could then extend that idea to female performers in general... the ones that stand out have a drive/energy that connects with their audience. Is that a particularly male trait? Have years of social conditioning made us hold back as writers, directors, performers? And, back on subject *ahem*, I'm not surprised women were more critical of women. Hasn't the female vs. female competitive spirit been rather well documented? Food for thought. Because we all like eating.

"That's right, I said minority - because isn't that the type of reaction we have to shows about race, or perhaps, religion?" ...Personally? No... "I was a little surprised to find that the monologues were all written by a man... so, no, they weren't about periods, but I actually don't think they provided any insight into 'the female experience' or even 'the human experience' at all." There must have been at least some element or spark in the play for women. After all, it starred two women, Jenny and Rebecca Davis and was directed by a woman, Jenny McNae. I doubt any man was putting the hard word on these ladies to force them to perform the genderist propaganda, so one must conclude that all three women found a valid reason for wanting to perform the text. Might I suggest that you simply saw what you wanted to see when you found out it was written by a man? Also, did anything you saw in the lead up to the show explicitly state that the show offered an 'insight' into the female experience? If it didn't... well then you can't criticise a show for what it never claimed it was trying to do... And by your own logic, who are you to judge whether or not the show offered no insight into the human experience? Did you speak to every patron there? Perhaps it just offered no insight into your experience of being human and therefore you couldn't get into the play and as a result didn't like it, this is fair enough, but it dosen't mean that was everyone else's experience. My point in writing this is to highlight that reactionary pointing of fingers at men only serves to deepen the gender divide (if there is one) rather than to mend it into the understanding of human experience. It goes to show that in stereotyping a male writer writing about females or a male audience member viewing a play written about the female experience it adds hefty evidence to the idea that in many ways women are the architects of their own destruction and are at least as guilty, if it all, as men. Men do the same thing except in true stereotypical fashion, we don't talk about it much and when we do it tends to cop a label like the one a friend of mine once gave a play about men's issues "this has a strong odour of eau de poofter". As for female directors having less success in this town than men... well, I disagree there, I don't think its particularly weighted either way and there is no evidence to suggest that it is. Deckchair up until recently (possibly even still now) had a female AD, and there's as you mentioned Black Swan and PTC and I am sure there are many others inclusive of professional and community companies. Also, we have a tendancy in the Perth arts scene to lean towards positive discrimination in the name of political correctness. It has certainly happened to me. And as a matter of fact, I was suprised to read that women are more inclined to discriminate against women and no I don't think female rivalry is well documented at all... It would set the womens lib movement back thirty years... unless a man was doing the documenting, in which case it would obviously be biased ;)

Actually, I'm a little curious about the 'voice of a minority' argument Liv is presenting. Since the gender divide in the human population is (approximately) 51% female and 49% male, shouldn't the voice of women be termed the voice of a majority? Also, I'm not sure how audiences can be said to be uncomfortable with 'The Female Experience' given the raging success of shows like 'The Vagina Monologues' and 'Busting Out'. [My mistake]- On re-investigation I realise I've misread the info I looked up last night. The world gender ratio is 1.01 males to every female. Women, therefore, are indeed in a minority. freddie the rocking jedi badger

Just to let you know, I was deliberately being a little facetious when I used the word 'minority'. I don't mean it literally. ;) I also deliberately avoided a full review of Singular Women, as this is not a review forum. I also did not assume (and NEVER DO) that everyone else felt the same way as I did when watching that show. I also didn't say it was a bad show at all! I don't know if you saw it Garreth, but I think if you had you would see what I mean (or maybe not, because I think we pretty much disagree on everything!). But just to explain myself a little more, I really felt that the four different women presented were rather stereotypical and that the direction of the monologues tended to exaggerate that at times, which I think was due to the style of comedy they going for. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, it was still an entertaining night out, but I just wasn't particularly moved by the writing because... well, if I wanted to make assumptions about other women, I can do that in the street, or while I'm at work! ;) I don't object to the use of stereotype, it's just I'm not sure they were aware they were doing it, and in this case, I found the choices a little offensive. Not hugely, but there was a lack of originality and quite a few choices that belittle women that rubbed me up the wrong way a little. And if we had any little people in the audience, I would have been VERY interested to hear what they had to say about the third monologue. Is this sort of lampooning really ok? Or will we look back on it in embarrassment, the way we do when we read history books written in the early part of the 20th century... These monologues were written in the early 90s, if I remember correctly, and I think it's quite possible that the expectations of political correctness are not as rigid as they are today. I very much doubt other people in the audience would have seen it that way, because obviously I am hyper-sensitive in this area! And the majority of the people there were of a completely different demographic to me. But I think it is good to have some feminist policing sometimes... Also, in regards to Busting Out, the audiences for these shows are WOMEN. Obviously women don't have a problem hearing about other women. Not sure what sort of audiences The Vagina Monologues has had, but I'd assume it would be a similar ratio of women to men. In terms of the reactions to race and religion, I was thinking of a few specific things... an article by an islamic comedian performing at the Edinburgh Festival being told she always plays 'the race card' because she discusses her heritage and experiences on stage (she argues: don't we all talk about what we know?) and being beaten up for it on occasion; performances of The Black Album at the National in London seeming to have quieter houses while I was there (that's just a deduction though, I haven't seen numbers); a friend of mine saying all you have to do to be persecuted in this day and age is to say you're a Christian... These are just surmisings based on my own experiences. Of course I see what I want to see. I'd say we all do. Again: I NEVER assume that what I say is the opinion of everyone else in the audience. Or the world, for that matter. It is just FOOD FOR THOUGHT. I probably won't even be of the same opinion in about a month... Just picking up on one thing you said there, Garreth - are you saying you got passed over for a job because you werea man and they wanted a woman? Could you tell us about that or will it get you in trouble?