Women Playrights Have a Tougher Time Than Their Male Counterparts

An article in this morning’s New York Times highlights a recent research project which proved what women playwrights have always known: women playwrights have a tougher time getting their work staged and acted than men do.

But the research study also found a few things that surprised everyone, including the fact that it is women artistic directors and literary managers who are often the ones to blame for this reality. Researchers came to this conclusion after sending identical scripts to artistic directors and literary managers around the country. One half of the identical scripts had the name of a man on it as the writer, while the other half had the name of a woman. Overall, the same script with a woman’s name on it received significantly worse ratings than those with a man’s name on it when it was being rated by a woman artistic director/manager. Male artistic directors/managers rated the manuscripts the exact same.

So what’s at the root of this discrimination? There’s no way to know for sure, but the primary researcher, Emily Glassberg Sands, suggests that perhaps artistic directors who are women possess a greater awareness of the barriers female playwrights face, and therefore perceived their plays differently.

To add yet another layer to this surprising data is the fact that female-authored plays on stage during the research period actually made more money than shows written by men, selling 16% more tickets. Yet, better ticket sales didn’t mean that producers kept the shows running any longer than less profitable shows written by men, something that Emily pointed out as clear discrimination.

While I find the results of this study dismal to say the least, the fact that women artistic directors and literary managers so clearly discriminated against women playwrights without considering the merits of the work itself is, to me, the biggest disappointment. When institutionalized gender discrimination is at play, how are women ever going to truly gain equality in career opportunities and pay?

What’s your take on this study?