Monday, October 11, 2021
Theatre in UK faces exodus of women after pandemic, study finds
Theatre | The Guardian: Leading women in British theatre have expressed concern that cash-strapped theatres could prioritise staging “safe” work by men and face an exodus of female talent if urgent action is not taken to support women after the pandemic.
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The stats referenced in this article are jaw dropping, however at the same time I am also not shocked. 60% of women contemplating leaving the work force with 85% worried about their roles continuing in the industry. Additionally, generally theatre just doesn’t pay enough for women with children to be able to afford child care. As a married woman in the theatre world, even in America, I struggle with some of the same concepts that were brought up in this article. I am worried about a regression in the advanced that woman have made in the work place coming out of covid and it looks like, yet again, it is hitting the theatre industry a little harder. It is an obvious move for theaters to return to some “classics” to have an increase in revenue but I did not previously think about the consequences of that move, as mentioned in the article, that with that there are less women represented in those works.
This article brings up a lot of the all too true realities of women working in theatre. It is incredibly hard, and based on these numbers and this data, it seems it is getting increasingly harder, at least in the UK post pandemic. The article also talked about theatres opening up and resorting back to the “safe” shows that they know audiences will come to because they know them. And all too often these shows are written by men, generally white men. It is a real fear that after all of this work the theatre is doing to become anti-racist and have better working conditions, and provide more for the people working in the industry, there will be a huge fall right back to where they were before the pandemic just so they can reopen again. I fear all of the work will be lost, and was just a show because they “couldn’t do anything else.”
When businesses are faced with a crisis, they are often forced to strip down to the essentials, stop taking creative risks and cater directly to the expectations. The fact that we have all experienced a broad crisis means a lot of businesses are going to the expected, which is obviously harmful to those who want to fight the stereotypes and push for innovation. It is sad that COVID has united us substantially, yet it continues to divide us. We all have to be mindful of history’s tendencies to fall back upon itself and repeat, and how we facilitate that in micro-movements in the workplace. But maybe, we can consider this through a different lens. How can obstacles drive us to change. These women who are being pushed down in the industry may have to overcompensate by pushing themselves to create bolder, more attention grabbing works. And maybe, after this period of pain, we can unite under a new context of seeing and supporting women.
I found this article comforting because it is acknowledging that change needs to happen, however, it does not explain how that change will happen which is just as important. This article mentions the stereotype that women are responsible for “domestic responsibilities” and how the pandemic increased those responsibilities ultimately forcing women to take a big step back. I never really thought about it this way but now I realize this was very accurate in most households in the height of the pandemic. Seeing as this article was written about theatre in the UK, I see many parallels to what is expected of women and how women are feeling in the industry evident from the surveys. This issue is one that applies to more than just the theatre industry, so I hope that we are the ones to take a step in the right direction so that others follow suit. One note I found interesting was how they mentioned the majority of freelance workers are women, which is something I didn’t realize before reading this article.
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