Gender parity is a major problem in the professional theatre arts across the United States. According to the results of a study conducted by The League of Professional Theatre Women spanning five theatrical seasons (2010-2015), women make up a minority of:

• Produced/employed playwrights (30%)

• Directors (33%)

• Set designers (less than a third)

• Lighting designers (ranging between 8% and 16% over the five seasons)

• Sound designers (ranging between 14% and 22%).

 

This is not only a problem in the United States, but overseas as well.  A study conducted by The Guardian surveyed the top ten subsidized theatres in England over the 2011-2012 season and found similar numbers. They found that women make up a minority of:

• Directors (24%)

• Actors (38%)

• All ‘Creative Crew’ positions (23%)   (all  directors,  lighting, sound, and set designers, and composers)

 

Interestingly however, in both countries women make up the majority (over 60%) of theatre-goers/ticket buyers. 

 

“This is about modern theater telling its predominantly female audiences that the human experience deserving of dramatic imagination is still the male one…In politics or business we see it all the time.

But in theater?”

-Lauren Gunderson, Playwright/Theatre Essayist