There's a reputation in technical theatre that I've now made my mission to break. If you look on the Internet, or maybe, if you work in technical theatre, if you listen to conversation at work, you notice that there's a lack of women.
Technical theatre is hard work, so naturally, there aren't many women in that field because it is seen as "man's work" because it's more difficult than most. There's scenery that needs to be built and moved, lights that need to be hung at various heights, and in some cases, scenery that needs to be rigged. There's dangerous stuff out there, but nothing that a woman can't handle.
Women are strong human beings, but we know this. It's society that continues to place the weak and gullible stigmas on women for as long as I can remember.
However, any workplace situation I've been in has been streamlined because of the hard work of women, and that's in any industry you work in. We get stuff done, and society needs to recognize it.
Here's the deal: designer positions in theatre are severely lacking women and it's time for that to change.
In a study done by lighting designer Porsche McGovern in 2015, women held 8.8% of sound design positions while men held 91.2%. Women held 13.7% of lighting positions while men held 86.3%. The only category that women outshone men? Costume design, where women held 68.7% of positions while men held 31.3%. This study was done over the course of five seasons in LORT (League of Resident Theatres) houses.
While I couldn't find much information regarding scenic design, I can tell with numbers in lighting and sound design that they can't be good. That, and the fact that when I'm on shop calls, I'm usually the only woman building in the shop, and honestly, I'm just fine with that because I know it's a step in the right direction of normalizing women in otherwise heavily male workplaces.
Another category women outshine men in is stage management. I feel like that's a given, but also given my connection and passion for stage management, I would like to see more men in the field too. I hope that men can say the same in scenic, lighting, and sound design.
Like any fight for equality, this is going to take time. But, with the growing popularity trend of theatre and the ever-changing environment of each theatre house, more and more women find themselves in design positions. Maybe one day, the men to women ratio in all technical theatre positions will finally be equal.
Until then, I will be happy with the fact that I work with a company who strives for equality and gives everyone a chance at tech theatre positions, regardless of gender.
