# More backstage diversity



## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 1, 2018)

Another article that highlights this issue. https://www.americantheatre.org/2018/06/19/yes-lighting-design-has-a-diversity-problem/

I have wondered if there isn't something inherent to lighting among the math, visual, and physical aspects that just makes the discipline more appealing to males than females.

Racial diversity or the lack thereof is probably more simply those places where young people are exposed to and develop an interest in lighting simply are not as accessible to people of color, which is discrimination.


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## ruinexplorer (Sep 1, 2018)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> I have wondered if there isn't something inherent to lighting among the math, visual, and physical aspects that just makes the discipline more appealing to males than females.
> 
> Racial diversity or the lack thereof is probably more simply those places where young people are exposed to and develop an interest in lighting simply are not as accessible to people of color, which is discrimination.



I think that question could be easily quantified by looking at who is going to college for lighting design versus who is getting hired. I think that part of the problem is that so many theater companies hire just one or two designers and keep them. That means if we had a high ratio of white male designers, it will be difficult to break in to the industry. It might be easier for those who are not white men to break in through other means, such as architectural or special events as there are different hiring practices.


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## notoriousRBG (Sep 1, 2018)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> I have wondered if there isn't something inherent to lighting among the math, visual, and physical aspects that just makes the discipline more appealing to males than females.



Sorry, but no. Lighting design is a field pioneered by women-- folks like Jean Rosenthal and Tharon Musser defined what it means to be a lighting designer.

What we have now is a bit of boy's club mentality in the field.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 1, 2018)

notoriousRBG said:


> What we have now is a bit of boy's club mentality in the field.


 perhaps but I am very sure i have not seen it in the institutions ive been associated with. Why are there just so many fewer female applicants to many academic lighting programs? 

It does seem to be an interest that begins early. I worked on lighting backstage in 6th grade - ran the autotransformer switchboard. Played with colored lighting and electricity before that. Who in society is discouraging or preventing little girls from playing with lights at that age?


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## ruinexplorer (Sep 1, 2018)

Sometimes it isn't who is discouraging them, but where they are encouraged to go. If you read some of Live Design's 30 under 30 interviews, you will find that it sometimes took someone to offer the opportunity to shift the paradigm. One of my co-workers (lighting programmer) was one of those ladies who started to break the mold. She is now in her 50s and had to fight her way into the field. When she went to college in the 80's, being a stagehand outside of wardrobe was mostly unthinkable for women. She was discouraged by her family as well as others in the field. Now she is a beacon of hope to the young ladies who come through as interns.

I am hopeful that my chosen profession in digital media, that we will be better. It looks a bit slanted so far in the meetings that I have had in the Digital Media Commission through USITT (still a lot of old white guys), but I know that isn't necessarily who will be completely dominating the professional world. I have had a few wonderful interns (women and non-white), whom I have kept in touch with, that are making their mark in the field. Being that it is still a fledgling field, and one of the true leaders is Wendall Harrington (at Yale), I have a lot of hope.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 1, 2018)

Yale is not typical, and Ming among others always worked hard and made a concerted effort to recruit and encourage minorities and women in my view. Probably affects my perspective. Still, very few female applicants for lighting design.


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## ruinexplorer (Sep 1, 2018)

Agreed that Yale is not typical, they are often considered a leader for a reason. They were one of the first schools to actually offer a projection design (graduate level) course of study and, as I mentioned, was a woman to be at the helm. 

As to recruitment in universities, that was kind of my point above. I believe that there is probably a different story when we look at the university setting as compared to the LORT setting (which is a bit limiting, but the subject of the article). I believe that the design field will catch up if hiring practices change (i.e. not having a resident designer). I believe that the women will stand out due to their discipline to math and understanding of visual elements without the preconceptions of needing to adhere to the old ways.

But the women still have to deal with quite a bit of sexism in this field, which will have a lot to do with the results. I know women who have been in lighting that quit due to harassment (either sexual or bias towards physical ability). I know women who decide to go another direction because they have to constantly "prove" themselves. Backstage can be a hostile place outside of the academic setting, and there are a lot of people who don't want to live their lives that way.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 2, 2018)

ruinexplorer said:


> Backstage can be a hostile place outside of the academic setting,



What does that leave, professional and community? Does film/television figure into this?


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## Jay Ashworth (Sep 2, 2018)

notoriousRBG said:


> Sorry, but no. Lighting design is a field pioneered by women-- folks like Jean Rosenthal and Tharon Musser defined what it means to be a lighting designer.
> 
> What we have now is a bit of boy's club mentality in the field.



"There exist competent, interested female LDs" is not a rebuttal to "I have wondered if there isn't something inherent to lighting among the math, visual, and physical aspects that just makes the discipline more appealing to males than females."

Now, if you want to dig two layers further down and see if that inclination amongst males vs females comes from early education, fine. But let's keep our arguments lined up on the targets.

I personally think that making that sort of educational opportunity easily available to females will increase their numbers here, sure. But from 5% to 50%? No, my experience of women is from 5% to maybe 15-20%.

But I am young and not well traveled...


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 2, 2018)

I think discrimination is wrong but I don't think the lack of the percentage of women in stage lighting design being in proportion to the population at large is evidence of a discrimination, and the article seems to make the small percentage of women the basis for discrimination.

What would be useful is knowing the relative proportion of males and females who wanted to make a career in stage lighting design and never made it. My guess is that segment has even fewer women by proportion.


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## Quillons (Sep 5, 2018)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> I have wondered if there isn't something inherent to lighting among the math, visual, and physical aspects that just makes the discipline more appealing to males than females.


I may be going "off-target" here, but I do have some opinions that may be of interest.

Yah, no. It's not inherent.
It's been my opinion for quite some time that anyone can do *anything*, if they choose to put in the work.
When I was in theatre school but studying to start an engineering program, I (attempted) to do some math review in my downtime during shows. One thing that surprised me was that every person passing by who noticed my book (every single one of them) went: "Is that a math book? Ug I hate math: there was this one teacher I had in high school..." My guess is that people who are "bad" at math, missed a lesson at one point and since math builds logically, their foundation has been shaky for quite some time. If they would had put in the work, they would have succeeded. I highly suspect that those who internalize "Oh, I'm bad at math" (for whatever reason), are less likely to put in the work. Math is simply a skill.



ruinexplorer said:


> if we had a high ratio of white male designers, it will be difficult to break in to the industry


Something I learned... at some point, is that people tend to hang out with those who are like themselves. An applicant who is similar (gender, race, socioeconomic, life experience, age...) to the one doing the hiring is probably going to score higher on the like-o-bility meter. 



ruinexplorer said:


> Now she is a beacon of hope to the young ladies who come through as interns.


Yay! Keep rockin' on!



BillConnerFASTC said:


> Does film/television figure into this?


I have no connections, but the recent #MeToo movement would suggest so. Sure, actresses/actors may have started it, but a toxic culture will be a toxic culture. I think I've seen that about 50% of films in the silent era were directed by women, but it's around (or less than) 10% now?


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 6, 2018)

Quillons said:


> It's been my opinion for quite some time that anyone can do *anything*, if they choose to put in the work.



I agree, but "can" is different than "desire". I don't question ability only interest. Consider the military. I dont think the same perecentage of females want to be soldiers as males.


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## Colin (Sep 6, 2018)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> I have wondered if there isn't something inherent to lighting among the math, visual, and physical aspects that just makes the discipline more appealing to males than females.




BillConnerFASTC said:


> I agree, but "can" is different than "desire". I don't question ability only interest. Consider the military. I dont think the same perecentage of females want to be soldiers as males.



Why? If you don't find out why, then you might make the mistake of confusing the effects of bias and discrimination for the kind of natural diversity that a healthy society should value and protect.

I’m not aware of anyone offering evidence of sex-based differences in visual or physical ability or interest that would relate to the kind of work we’re talking about, but the math question has been studied quite a lot. Most research seems to indicate no significant difference between females and males in aptitude or interest, outside of significant social factors. There is one frequently cited outlier study of infants (theoretically un-socialized) and a resulting book from early 2000s, and it has been in my estimation roundly delegitimized for poor design, bias and shallow analysis. Other studies and broader reviews of research have concluded that systematizing traits don’t necessarily even correlate with math achievement, and only marginally with sex, while empathizing does correlate negatively with math achievement and interest by adding anxiety from stereotype threat (social awareness of stereotypes). Brains are tricky, and what seems like a logical link (like systematizing and math) isn't always true.

So what’s left is socialization, and that means we’ve got a decision to make about whether that socialization is a positive part of our cultural identity or not:

Empirically and biologically, evidence I’m aware of points to females as a group being better at empathizing than males as a group, but also points to huge variations within those groups - i.e. time to quit generalizing about women vs men. Generalizing nevertheless, the conclusions of studies measuring sex-based difference in systematizing is that there is zero to marginal difference, and even where there is a difference between individuals’ systematizing abilities, it may have zero bearing on achievement or interest in math. So the only good reason for a smart and informed person to stick with a sex-based (biological) explanation for the pronounced female/male disparity in this area would be if that person were a bigot. Is ignorance or bigotry a positive part of our identity?

In social justice terms, it is again important to go back to broad empirical data. In these sorts of parity issues there is often talk of a “pipeline” problem, and that can enable the perpetuation of disadvantage. It tends to be the case that powerful people (who are usually men) are just looking in the wrong pipe and don’t care to try a different one, but when challenged will throw up their hands and say they simply can't find anyone who doesn't look and think like them. As far as I can tell the pipeline is fine up until women try to ascend within the profession. I’ve had better than half women in both academic programs I’ve taught in (HS and undergrad) and similar when I was a student. At least as much as the men, they’ve been both capable and driven. Individuals’ experiences vary though, like mine versus Bill’s. So look at broader data. I have some bookmarks in a browser somewhere, but you all can go do the work yourselves too. I don’t have all day. The numbers clearly show that women have interest and aptitude roughly on par with men but that opportunities for women fall away as the work gets more lucrative and prestigious. That’s the point central to this article, and I’m surprised that Bill glossed over it en route to the question of interest. Kathy Perkins notes that “It’s gotten a little better, but it’s still pretty bad given that about half of the MFA programs in lighting [comprise] women.” Perhaps that's a casual observation rather than a research-based finding, or perhaps not, but it would be ridiculous to expect her to be off by, what, about 40%? There's more after that. The bottom line has two parts. First, there is a fair amount of evidence that women’s interest and achievement is harmed more than men’s by baseless stereotypes that discourage their participation. Second, qualified women are nevertheless asking to participate roughly on par with qualified men but they aren’t given equal professional opportunities. Does this sound like a positive part of our cultural identity?

It’s a standard conservative position in “the culture wars” that progressives want to suppress benign difference in the name of equality, and that’ll erode the “free minds, free markets, free people” concept of liberty. Let’s be vigilant against that gratuitous homogenization, but also recognize that this type of criticism is a time-tested tool for the maintenance of privilege and disadvantage. It can get pretty despicable pretty quickly if we don’t think and research our way past that.


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## Kristi R-C (Sep 6, 2018)

The amount of math it takes to be a theatre lighting designer is HS level. That's not even a consideration.

Physical issues? Carrying a kid around all day is far harder than anything we do in lighting.

Visual issues? Women have better color discrimination then men - not a problem either. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120903221050.htm

We've always had great women LDs - and still do (Paule Constable is one of my faves!) But employment isn't about skills and ability; most employment in this business is word of mouth, so friends get hired over talent. How many female friends do you have? How many male? When was the last time you recommended a woman for a gig?

When I was younger, I was told point blank that lighting was not something women did. I was lucky that my dad taught me about electricity through 4-H projects, but my HS wouldn't even let me in the booth! When I joined the IATSE after I graduated college, my IA local already had women electricians and we did/do everything. That's not the case in many areas. I was amazed to find that in 2014 people were surprised there was such a thing as a woman in lighting - I got asked about it all the time on tour. Yet I was told in one southern city that I was "taking a man's job away" and should be home taking care of my (adult) son. In another city I was asked why I would want to do such a "dirty job with such long hours for low pay." (That was on a First National Broadway tour!)

And even if you are an IA or USA829 member, you are still faced with subtle and overt sexual harassment. It's easier to pick a job where you don't have to deal with that BS.

Frankly, I've been encouraging women to NOT go into theater design. There is an abundance of college graduates already who can't earn a living as a designer, and many of the "jobs" are little more than slave labor. I do encourage them to go into architectural lighting design, video content design, AV design; to become stagehands, install techs, project managers, theatre admins, or work for manufacturers or dealers. This article is about LORT - not the best place to try to earn a living as a designer, especially if you have family to care for.

FWIW, the University of Wisconsin - Madison just graduated a trio of MFA lighting designers who are female. Then again, Ann Archbold was their professor - she knows how hard it is for women in this business.


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## TheaterEd (Sep 6, 2018)

@Kristi R-C Glad you stopped by! You were the first person that popped in my mind when I saw this article and I was about to link you to this thread to get your 2 cents! (We've met though AWTE)

At the high school level, I actually have had an abundance of females take an interest in lighting and sound design. In the past 11 years I have only had one male lighting tech lead, but from what I've heard my school is more of an exception in that I average around 30-40 technicians and they are about 75% female.


Kristi R-C said:


> Frankly, I've been encouraging women to NOT go into theater design.



I have a policy that I will try to talk you out of it until it becomes clear that you are going to defy me. THEN I will support you. I have a former student that just transferred to UW-Milwaukee for lighting design with the ambition to become an ME some day.


Kristi R-C said:


> But employment isn't about skills and ability; most employment in this business is word of mouth


 It's definitely a word of mouth industry! Since she's been back in the area (two months now) I've been able to send two different jobs her way and she's already gotten other gigs offered to her based on her work.


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## MNicolai (Sep 6, 2018)

In my own travels, I have found more frequently that a given middle or high school tech theater program is likely to be heavily female or heavily male. 50/50 splits are not common. I would say more often at this level the crews I encounter actually are mostly women.

The reasons why certain people end up on a stage crew vary. Some have that burning desire to be a designer from show they've seen before. Some are trying to do something with their friends. Many are people who auditioned for the show but didn't get in. The other extracurriculars offered or not offered at a given school can also impact one gender more heavily than another. Your students who get involved in sports tend to be less commonly those who want to hang lights or mix sound, but the availability or non-availability of certain gender-specific sports could skew who ends up getting drawn into their school's theater program. Music students are also usually in heavy competition with theater programs too, but are less likely to have an impact on one gender's availability for participation in theater than the other's.

In my mind, high school is the launch point for most people who get into theater. I would say from a 50,000ft perspective that most people in our business started doing it at a young age in high school and college. The number of people who got into it later in life is quite small. 

There's certainly a factor to be considered on who is encouraged to take theater on professionally vs just as a hobby. Some regions or individual schools are more likely to present theater as a serious option of career choice but most are not going to encourage further pursuit after graduation.

I have no doubt that there's some degree of harassment and discrimination that takes place and that discourages women from continuing careers in this field, but I don't know that there's any way to quantify the talent loss from that compared to people who never made it into the field professionally after high school or college. I also see a lot of people who graduate college and end up at Starbucks -- for a variety of reasons. 

It seems like physicality is a deterrent, by discrimination and self-assumption rather than by reality. I know a handful of 5' tall, 115lb women who can push any box, swing any hammer, or hang any light by virtue of knowing how to throw their weight around effectively, who have professed a frustration with other women and even some men for showing up backstage for the 1st time and assuming they themselves cannot do certain things because they don't think they're strong enough. Guys seem to be more likely to brute force something and to be selected for tasks regardless of whether they've previously demonstrated physical fitness.

The million dollar question is whether this is primarily a hiring issue, a career retention issue, or an early life theater-can-be-your-day-job-if-you-try-hard-enough issue.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 6, 2018)

Colin said:


> females as a group being better at empathizing than males as a group



In my experience this seems so. I will always prefer female doctors. Besides empathy, much less likely to have a Good complex (reverse gender discrimination? And for the too serious,  ).

I'm sure there are exceptions but I'm fairly certain there were no women applicants to Yale for lighting design in the 4 years I was there, and I assisted Warfel on portfolio reviews for two of those. Why? Whose to blame? 

There's lots of issues like this I believe are out and out discrimination and societal expectations, but not convinced it is the only cause for so few women in stage lighting. 

And yes, I think males are much quicker to solve problems by getting a bigger hammer. Are females equally prone to that logic? Not in my experience.

I wish someone would propose solutions that stand a chance of succeeding.


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## MNicolai (Sep 6, 2018)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> I wish someone would propose solutions that stand a chance of succeeding.



Seems like USITT is the best-positioned industry org to address this at the various levels and corners of the industry it would need to be researched, discussed, and propaganda'd.

I know AEA has been looking at better protecting their members from harassment and retaliation through adding verbiage to their contracts and putting new auditioning, rehearsal, and grievance processes in place, but I don't know that anything is happening in USA, IATSE, or in pre-professional academic environments. OffstageJobs also declared they'll ban posts from employers with employee harassment complaints against them.

Not sure if anyone saw this William Ivey Long article a few weeks back, but that's another side of issues that need to be corrected rather than these kinds of things becoming worst-kept secrets and industry gossip. I've similarly been felt up by a much older man who signed my checks so I can vouch that harassment has many forms.

At the end of the day it's largely a starving artist business with small, tightly knit professional communities where people are beholden to their sources of income. The squeaky wheel gets dropped from the call list and then rent doesn't get paid, or they end up pouring coffee at Starbucks, or they move to Montreal. Most employers and production management staff learned by working their way up and have actually no formal business/people management training which further complicates both the problem and any potential solutions.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 6, 2018)

We'll that (robert ivey long article) was depressing.


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## Kristi R-C (Sep 6, 2018)

JAMES!!! Hi! Fancy "seeing" you here! (Are you coming to AWTE? Ripon on the 21st.) www.awte.net to register

Yes, it's a lot better in WI for females in professional tech theater. I call it the "cow principle." Cows don't care about your demographics, economic status, religion, etc., they just want to be milked on time and in Wisconsin, when it's milking time, every able-bodied person goes to the barn to help out so we can all have one of Milwaukee's finest beverages sooner. That attitude flows through the IA here, too. 

Wisconsin has a lot of great women in lighting - and more coming up. Please have your student get in touch with me. I'd love to meet her! 

Mike Nicoai asks about the unions involvement... the IATSE president has said on several occasions "there is no IATSE without the women of IATSE" yet I frequently find myself being called or emailed by other IA women asking how to deal with harassment in their local or on the job site. Short answer --- we're working on it. But just as with racism, you don't change an ingrained culture overnight. I've been an IA member since 1990 and the amount of crap I've had to deal with ebbs and flows depending on the kind of show, where I am and the social climate. Seems every bigoted jerk is coming out of the woodwork this year. 

The solution is to two pronged, Bill Conner: need to change the misogynistic environment on the job and remove the economic barriers to college.


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## BillConnerFASTC (Sep 6, 2018)

All I know is if I referred to "females in professional tech theater" and the "cow principle" in the same post, I'd be severely ostracized.


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## derekleffew (Sep 6, 2018)

"Many people are saying" that no one is better at milking the clock than WI stagehands.


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## TheaterEd (Sep 7, 2018)

Kristi R-C said:


> the "cow principle."




Kristi R-C said:


> when it's milking time, every able-bodied person goes to the barn to help out



Lol, THIS. People are always surprised at how fast my set strikes go. Not me. You tell the parents that the kids can't leave until the stage is clear and you have to spend the whole time getting them to NOT take things apart. 

Kristi R-C said:


> remove the economic barriers to college.


And also quality schools. While there are some true gems over in Milwaukee, there are not nearly enough opportunities for the young people to create art. They won't go into theater if they don't realize it's an option. As a person from rural Wisconsin, I never dreamed that I could make a living working behind a sound board. I just thought it was something people do as a hobby. I never thought I could be a theater teacher, because I didn't know that there were such things as high school acting classes.

I truly hope that access to technology helps the young people of today to find career paths that actually interest them, but with college tuition being what it is, our inner city kids are stuck in a vicious cycle and people are graduating with theater degrees only to find that it's more profitable to stay in retail.


Kristi R-C said:


> (Are you coming to AWTE? Ripon on the 21st.)


I sincerely hope so, but I have some scheduling issues that I need to resolve to make that happen! Working on it!


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## MNicolai (Sep 11, 2018)

Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota, FL, just announced a variety of events coming up championing women in theater. Anybody in the Sarasota/Tampa/St Pete area may want to check this out next month.

​

*Meet the Guests for the Modern Works Festival Panel Discussions*
_These 60-minute Q&As are a terrific opportunity to meet some of the women leading the charge in American theater. All festival panel discussions are free, but you must reserve your tickets to secure your seat, as availability is very limited._

*Playwriting with Martyna Majok* - Thursday, October 4th at 8pm Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok returns to Sarasota after becoming the first female playwright to win the Greenfield Prize in early 2018. With an array of the most prestigious playwriting awards and multiple high-profile commissions, Martyna is one of the most exciting and important new voices in theater. _(Tickets)_

*Women in Technical Theatre* - Sunday, October 7th at 5pm Three beloved industry professionals from the region join the Urbanite stage to in a rare opportunity to discuss their responsibilities and experiences behind the scenes. Panelists include American Stage Stage Manager and Sound Designer Rachel Harrison, Urbanite Theatre Production Stage Manager Amanda LaForge and New College Production Manager Monica Cross. _(Tickets)_

*Women in Theatre Leadership: Stephanie Gularte *- Wednesday, October 10th at 5pm Artistic Director Stephanie Gularte will discuss her path from starting a theater in Sacramento to becoming the leading force of St. Petersburg's acclaimed theater American Stage. _(Tickets)_

*Women in Theatre Leadership: Linda DiGabriele* - Friday, October 12 at 5pm Longtime Managing Director Linda DiGabriele has guided the business side of Asolo Rep for over two decades as a part of her 45 total years at the company. _(Tickets)_


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## Quillons (Sep 28, 2018)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> Does film/television figure into this?



Just had a LA Times article pop up on my facebook feed: "Female-dominated Hollywood crafts jobs see gender bias, according to new study"
The article focuses on a script supervisor, and the pay gap between women-dominated roles and comparable male-dominated roles. Near the bottom is a bit about how just over half of women who responded to a survey said they experienced sexual harassment in the workplace within the last three years. So, yes, it appears to be film/television as well.


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## Sayen (Oct 21, 2018)

MNicolai said:


> In my own travels, I have found more frequently that a given middle or high school tech theater program is likely to be heavily female or heavily male. 50/50 splits are not common. I would say more often at this level the crews I encounter actually are mostly women



This has been my experience too, although now that I'm thinking on it, subjectively I see mostly male students at competitions, other than design. I do notice that male students want to talk over and dominate many tech projects, and I have to work to make sure girls don't become passive and miss opportunities. I've had several very talented female students who were my top techs in a given year, but many of them went on to higher paying fields like engineering. I've also had professional crews come through and openly make sexist remarks about the composition of my crew, sometimes in front of my crew, so the negative atmosphere is definitely there in our industry. 

At the high school level, where many techs start, we need to look at how the industry is presented to women. Even with little things-for example, I had to train myself to stop saying things like, "I need three strong guys for this job," and focus on more inclusive language. Everyone gets to lift!


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## TheaterEd (Oct 23, 2018)

Sayen said:


> Everyone gets to lift!



My go to phrase is to just call out "I need Three people with hands!". So far, I have never come across a tech with no hands, however I did have a one handed student and one student with a birth defect and they always liked when I would say that and would often make a joke about it.


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## Chase P. (Oct 26, 2018)

BillConnerFASTC said:


> It does seem to be an interest that begins early. I worked on lighting backstage in 6th grade - ran the autotransformer switchboard. Played with colored lighting and electricity before that. Who in society is discouraging or preventing little girls from playing with lights at that age?



This really makes me think (and thank you for that!). I was encouraged to explore basic electrical circuits, tools, woodworking as a child. If someone of any gender isn't given the opportunity to explore those interests early, what's it going to do further down the line? I'm going to have to ask some of the amazing women I'm lucky enough to work with if their play as children set them up to feel enabled to explore the technical side of life and make them the successes they are today. If that wasn't encouraged early, then an even bigger kudos to them for overcoming that gap on their own.


Sayen said:


> I had to train myself to stop saying things like, "I need three strong guys for this job," and focus on more inclusive language. Everyone gets to lift!



This has been really hard for me. I was raised using "guys" as a gender neutral "hey everybody" kind of phrase. I'm finding some success substituting "folks" instead. I'm happy that at a recent meeting before a crew call with new overhire, the theater management had us all go around and introduce ourselves, including name, department, and preferred pronouns. It's on all of us to make this a welcoming industry for everyone, from how we talk to each other, all the way to hiring and promotion practices.


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