The claim is made in a major new report into the impact that being a parent can have on people working in the sector, which also found that around three quarters of survey respondents – 74% – had to turn down work because of having a child.
Monday, October 19, 2015
'One in four performing arts careers halted by parenthood' – survey
The claim is made in a major new report into the impact that being a parent can have on people working in the sector, which also found that around three quarters of survey respondents – 74% – had to turn down work because of having a child.
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So we were just talking in my Stats class about how you should not interpret voluntary response surveys as carrying much weight. There has never been a voluntary response survey that was not bias. The people that tend to respond are the people that the survey is trying to highlight. In this case people who are stressed about career vs child are more likely to respond to a survey with questions about being stressed due career vs child. So while the statistics themselves can basically be thrown out the window, that does not mean there is not a problem. (It also does not mean there is one). On some notes, I see there being solutions. Maybe paying for childcare for your actors is something Equity can fight for. But on others I think that there are jobs that prohibit children. If you are going to be working late into the night on odd hours loading on shows or going on tour, there is no feasible way you could do well raising a child. And as to the note about not being able to make auditions, that also seems unsolvable. I think its unfair to demand childcare from the people you are auditioning for, especially if they are open auditions.
I think in any profession where work is unstable and the hours are crazy or regularly changing, there is not going to be a solution for childcare. Those professions are not conducive to parenting. If you can find a stable job and do both, that's great congratulations. But there aren't enough of those to go around so the rest of you are gonna have to just face the facts.
The title of this article is one of the main reasons I do not ever want to have children. They ruin your career for a good 10 years before they are an independent entity and then they nonstop argue with your authority. Or at least that is how I was a child, and I don’t want to raise anyone like myself because damn I was an annoying child and anyone who tries to take care of me knows: I hate people taking care of me. I’m what I like to call, “aggressively independent.”
Based on my own childhood, why would I waste ten years of my career taking care of something that doesn’t want to be taken care of? Ten years is a very long time, and in this industry which is constantly growing, ten years of inexperience can make the difference from a job and being unemployable. I would rather be rich and alone then poor and with a family. I did the poor with a family thing; it’s no fun.
I wonder how these number hold up outside of artistic professions. Yes, those people may have more concrete schedules, but some things have to come up now and again that cause those employees to miss meetings / days at work etc. I can definitely emphasize with the feeling that after having a baby, there's a huge pressure to get back to work. At the ripe old age of 20, I've been asked what I'm going to do with my theatrical job once I start having kids. Not if, once. Childcare for something as fluid as an arts job has proven to be a huge stressor on these women, and they shouldn't have to choose between raising a child and having a successful career. It's 2015; they can have their cake and eat it too. However, I feel like this survey isn't complete because most of the people surveyed were actors. I can see why; there are way more actors then there are directors, but in order for them to have gotten a complete range of people. they should have gotten more people working in producing/directing/management jobs. While these jobs tend to have a more rigid schedule, that's not always the case, and this survey could have benefitted from having that aspect.
Entertainment is definitely a demanding field, especially in term of hours and location, to the point where these statistics actually seem crazy reasonable to me. I’m fortunate enough to not have the need to settle down just yet, or have a stable family, for that matter – but I do know of so many people in this field who want that as soon as possible. But the reality is that for at least the beginning of a chilld’s life, it is going to be necessary to stop your career or take a break in order to provide care and devote a significant amount of time to your child. I really like the author’s idea of fostering centers where people in creative fields would be provided with free child care while auditioning or meeting for something. I think his would also foster a great arts community for the future generation – just having all of these kids grow up together in an artistic and creative community.
First off, I appreciate that this article doesn't say that women’s careers stop when they become parents because that means people are starting to realize and accept that guys also can be the main parent taking care of the child. That both parents are responsible for taking care of children. However at the end they do talk about women being the biggest portion of affected people, but they don't start off blaming the women for putting their children over their careers.
What I get from this article is that basically that the companies that have auditions and rehearsals (whether that is for theatre, movies, or tv shows) need to have childcare options available for their actors, producers and directors. If the childcare options were in the same place as rehearsals, it would further solve the problem of having to end rehearsal exactly on time so the parent can pick up their kid.
I think this is true of many fields, starting a career and making a name for yourself requires a constant drive to put out a high quality product, and then continue to push that product out repeatedly in order to remain relevant. A child, a family requires you to put others needs before that of your own. The two by nature are at odds with each other, and I’m glad this article is sparking the discussion on how to mend the two together. A family should by no means be a punishment, nor should it be career ending. There will inevitably be some slowdown in the career, but it shouldn’t mean unemployment for pregnant women, or primary care takers of young children. My mentality when beginning this article was that of course your career in this field wouldn’t be as prominent, but I suppose that just goes to show the current society mindset surrounding new families, that they should be shunned away for their choices. Lets end it.
While this article focuses on the difficulty for actresses to balance a family life and a professional arts career, this issue is something I’ve thought a lot about as someone who wants to have children one day, but also wants to have a successful and fulfilling theater career. The aspect of theater I’ve heard the most about this conflict with is actually stage management, which I think makes sense, because they need to be a part of the process of a show from the very beginning to the very end, arriving to the theater/ rehearsal space the earliest and usually leaving last. I’m sure we’ll talk about this more as we go through the program, but it’s scary to think about how the rest of our life goals will fit into the scheme of our lives as theater designers and managers. This has also been on my mind in regards to my older brother, who is autistic, and who I will be the caretaker of when my parents aren’t able to. Will I be able to support him, and the rest of my future family, on a theatrical designer’s salary? And how often will I be able to work from home, as opposed to physically going into a production team meeting, or for scenic carpentry/ painting; how does this fit into the image I have in my mind of having a family? This might also depend on what kind of salary my spouse has. I’ve talked to others in my class who aren’t planning on having children, and many of them have said that they wouldn’t want to have children who they wouldn’t be able to see at all anyway. I know it’s very early to be thinking about this, but nevertheless it’s something I know is on the mind of many people my age as the future looms nearer, and as the theater industry and common family structure continues to evolve.
I think having a child has a major effect on any person's career. Bringing another person into the world is a full time job, and it's very difficult to balance work and family. Entertainment, however, is arguably the most difficult field to balance, due to the unpredictable and very lengthy hours. While it is difficult, as it is with any profession, it definitely is possible. There are plenty of successful performers with children at home. That being said, I can definitely understand why so many theatrical careers are cut short by having children. However, I don't consider that to be a failed career in any way. Starting a family is an amazing thing, and a successful life cannot be measured by one's career.
This article definitely hit home for me as it has been one of my concerns since deciding to go into stage management. My whole life, I have been taught that family is everything, and that having children is one of the most wonderful parts of life. I have always taken these things to heart and do really hope to have a family one day. But like Sasha S, I am often very worried about what this means for my career, and what my career means for my future family. Depending on what I end up doing with my life (stage manager? event manager? themed entertainment manager?), my pay will likely be low and my hours will likely be unpredictable. It's sort of a part of the package. Over the summer, I shadowed a brilliant Broadway stage manager who has a two-year-old son. I talked to her about my family/career concerns. She said that it had been very, very difficult for her so far. Luckily her husband is very helpful, but she was not getting the time she wanted with her son. The day I met her, she had only been able to see him for an hour that day because she had two performances to run. For a moment it seemed almost manageable, that she should be able to see her son all day and then work at night, but then she reminded me: kindergarten. When he reached school age, she would practically never see him at all. So she made the decision to cut off her stage management career when he turns 5 and stick to just teaching so she doesn't miss these important years of his life. I imagine I will end up doing something very similar, which many people have an issue with ("Don't just give up your career!"), but raising my children is very important to me, and if that means going down a different career path then that is honestly just what I will have to do. I have always wanted to be a teacher anyway so maybe that is where life will take me.
This article kind of scares me. As a person who thinks they will have kids at some point in my lifetime, this issue is extremely relevant. I don’t think that it is right to make people have to choose between their family and career. In other sectors of jobs, having a family does not have the same impact on one's career than in the performing arts. The hours for performers, designers, and technicians just aren’t compatible with raising a child. This makes me really wonder for my own future and the choice I will be forced to make in this career/family dichotomy. I find it upsetting that I will have to make this choice at all, but with the combination of weird hours and small salary, I honestly don’t know what I will do when the time comes.
As much as I love theatre, practical concerns like such has always been lingering at the back of my head. I haven't thought much about having kids, but rather about my family which I think works the same way - how will I be able to spend time and take care of my parents, sister and my dog who are living halfway across the globe? Not only is theatre very time consuming (which I don't really mind), but the pay is to my knowledge not ideal. I try not to think about these too much now and just focus on learning as much as I can, so that I'm as ready as I can be when I get out there. Either way, I don't think everything's just black and white - if one tries hard enough, it might work out. The article mentions how some women "felt their professional reputation would suffer as a result of childcare responsibilities" and felt that they were being judged. If people could try to get out of the mindset that women are unable to juggle both family and work, maybe it'll be a little bit easier.
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