A recent comment by @monkey13 in another thread brought to mind a pet peeve that's been front of mind for me recently, and that's the gaping gender gaps that persist in the theatre world. ... my D and I were getting a tour backstage from one of the Matilda actors shortly after it opened, and he said: "If you're a girl in the business, and you create drama or are a diva, you only get one chance. Do it once, and you'll never work again. If you're a boy, you get three chances."
While no one wants to hire or work with Divas, why is bad behavior more tolerated in males? Presumably it's primarily due to grossly imbalanced supply and demand, as well as the predominance of male Directors and Theatre Administrators.
Most of us have already encountered this gender gap by the time our MT's audition for their very first shows in school, and see it persist as they move through high school and into college auditions, where many schools admit fewer females than males.
A recent UK study concluded that while audiences are 70% female and 30% male, this ratio is almost exactly reversed when looking at employed actors, 70% of whom are male. http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/dec/10/women-in-theatre-research-full-results
To make a bad situation even worse, the ratio of female to male actors auditioning is roughly 70% female to 30% male, so almost twice as many females are competing for half as many roles.
I'm not sure if this situation is mirrored in film, but given recent articles I suspect it is very similar. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2563561/Hollywood-place-white-men-New-study-finds-women-minorities-dramatically-underrepresented-films-television.html
To illustrate how this gender gap plays out in the professional MT world, our D recently texted me a photo of a Playbill for a show she was seeing on her night off. It was a well-known Rogers & Hammerstein piece that features many strong female leads, all of whom were very seasoned actresses who were given special mention in reviews at this large Regional Theatre. When I looked at the Playbill, I was shocked to see that while there were 12 Equity males in the show (including many ensemble members), there was exactly ONE Equity female (not a lead but the Dance Captain who is required to be Equity)!!!!
Does the concept of Equal Pay for Equal Work have no meaning in the MT world? Given that this situation has not measurably improved in the past 10 years, is there reason to hope it will get more balanced in the coming decade? Can @soozievt 's D and others like her please write more, and faster? :)
Seriously, though, if you have a female MT in the family, really urge them to consider how to create more work so the women in the profession can actively participate in growing the MT employment pie!
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