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FOR THE PAST two weeks, my social media feed has been full of #wakingthefeminists, a movement initiated by Lian Bell, in response to the Abbey’s programme for 2016, entitled ‘Waking The Nation’.
The programme features only one play written by a woman, three plays directed by them, and less than ten parts for female actors.
As I sit here to write about my response to it, I’m cautious. I am wondering is this even something I want to do? In short, I am dreading the comments. I’m scared of ‘the bottom half of the internet’.
I have been working in the theatre for the past six years. As a director and producer, I am often in a leadership role. It’s not usual, that a young woman would be calling the shots. It’s even more surprising that she would speak with my accent, and be my age.
Gender bias
I have experienced gender bias, conscious or unconscious. I have also experienced out-and-out misogyny. I have attended meetings with male comrades where though I was speaking at the meeting, I was never looked in the eye by the man in the room, instead, he would direct all his responses to my male colleague.
I have been treated with a paternalistic dismissal, told that I wouldn’t be able to handle a big cast, told that senior actors wouldn’t respect me as a director because of my gender. It sometimes feels like I have had to bang down the door, when others have had it opened for them, but hey, them’s the breaks.
It’s not just because I am a woman. I’ve also been explicitly told:
“If you want to know the truth; it’s because you’re a woman, it’s because you’re working class and it’s because you’re young.”
I think that quote speaks volumes.
And it’s not just me. We are told that women don’t write plays for the main stages. That more men write plays than women. That men’s plays are probably just better. We are told we are not good enough. We are told that it’s not real, that there is no bias, and that we need to stop playing the victim, get the head down, and be better. Write better women.
How do I know you’re not going to leave and have a baby in a few months’ time? And that’s not from the bottom half of the internet. That’s in the theatre.
But of course, these things are not unique to my sector. Women’s voices are not just absent from the institutions of The Abbey and The Gate, they are absent in Dáil Éireann, in our media and in the boardrooms of big business. In a country which closed its last Magdalene Laundry in 2006, in which women don’t have control over their own bodies, in which the very constitution names them as unequal – what can you expect? Them’s the breaks.
The Abbey auditoriums play a story year in year out where women do not have a voice, where working class people are relegated, where there is no housing crisis, no heroin epidemic, no water protests, no mass emigration, no travellers, few poor people and very little dissent. But perhaps that is reflecting the nation. It doesn’t sound much different than RTÉ.
This programme, Waking The Nation, has made visible and evident something which was hard to prove. It’s glaringly obvious, if in 2015, the national theatre cannot reflect the experiences of half the nation, than we have a problem with equal opportunity.
The Abbey has had an affirmative action policy since 2009, they have commissioned female writers, and yet they have still failed to have anything close to a representation of the diversity of who we are as a nation represented on their stages.
What happens to these commissions? The plays remain in the drawer, not on the main stage, and rarely surface in the basement smaller space, the Peacock.
Representing women
The Abbey are the highest funded organisation in the country. They have the most resources, they are actively trying to represent women’s voices, and they can’t do it. The next highest funded is The Gate Theatre, who have an even worse record on gender equality. It shouldn’t be so hard? So why is it?
Who are they accountable to? They have the biggest piece of the pie, with close to ten million being spent annually on these organisations. Do you care that your money is being spent in this way?
If you’re looking for evidence, if the ratio of one to ten, is not enough, look to the independent theatre sector. It doesn’t exist in a radically different set of circumstances, it lives and breathes in the same Ireland as these institutions, yet it manages to do a much better job of reflecting the diversity of Irish life, with most of the independent companies being led by women; Druid, Rough Magic, ANU Productions, WILLFREDD, Talking Shop Ensemble and my own company, THEATREclub is made up of five women and three men.
Better still, if you need evidence, look at the bottom half of the internet. Look at the casual way this movement has been dismissed by many, as women whining, complaining, and needing to be put back in their place.
https://vine.co/v/el30Y3nYLqv
The assumption without any evidence that plays by women aren’t good enough. The acceptance that women don’t write as many plays as men. If you read the bottom half of the internet, it looks as though we are asleep.
We are not asking why we are not the Ireland we proclaimed to be in 1916. That dream of equality never happened. It hasn’t started. But something tells me it’s about to.
Grace is an activist, a theatre director, a writer and a theatre producer. She lives and works in inner city Dublin, Ireland where she is from.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female bin collector. Gender equality where or when it suits
We need more female gutter cleaners and chimney sweeps in my area. It’s complete gender discrimination, a disgrace
The nitty gritty jobs can be left to the men. Too icky and not worth the protest it seems
So true. Only one thing nerds to be considered: the acceptance rate for submitted plays expressed as a percentage. If it is such that a higher percentage of plays written by men are accepted, then the argument is valid. Until we see numbers, all arguments are meaningless. However it might still represent gender issues, and that is the issue as to why less women are in this field of artistic endeavour. Could it just be that due to gender preferences less women are interested?
Enough hashtag activism already. Gender discrimination is illegal and has been for some time.
Havent seen any female anti-terrorist squaddies in Paris either,now that you mention it….
For what its worth ,the author co-wrote a play about prostitution lately .
Here’s a critique of the play by a sex seller who to gave her views and experiences to the authors .To be fair , the playwrights openly invited anyone to give their views on the issue ….
Re previous post , the conclusion at the end of the piece , you can read why the sex seller wasn’t too impressed by Grace Dyas’s representation.
Bin collectors are lazy. I only see them working one day a week in my area.
We need more wine fighting on the front line in wars…it’s a disgrace
Men in Ireland are twice as likely to be unemployed, three times more likely to be homeless and five times more likely to commit suicide. As our “top-half” of the Internet author would say, them’s the breaks…
That wouldn’t quite work, because it could simply be that of the submissions during a certain period the best of the lot were written by men. The only way I can think to make sure there is no bias is for plays to be submitted without those who review them knowing who the author is. Maybe just assign a number to each play before it’s given for review. Seems ridiculous, but if that’s what it takes to prove a given group isn’t being discriminated against, what’s the harm?
@China… mandatory suicide for women to address this shocking gender imbalance. Why should men get to enjoy all the homelessness and depression??
Because “Them’s the breaks”
Do you write plays?
Do you write plays?
That your lovely girlfriend in the picture….does she know you respect ladies…..
Men are more likely to hold senior positions in academia, more likely to reach the level of PhD in education. Less than 30 TDs are female out of almost 170 I think. When it comes to leadership traits such as taking charge men are deemed by most as likely to possess these traits over women who are thought to possess more caring traits. Margaret Thatcher for example was nicknamed the iron lady for displaying strong traits which were deemed to be male traits. A woman in a powerful position who takes charge is called bossy, a dragon, a ball buster, there are no male equivalent terms, a male is respected for displaying these traits. However the other side is men are deemed to be pussies, manginas, needing to grow a pair, if they display the caring traits associated with women or do not display the strength based traits associated with males.
I have.
Hi John B,
So that would be great if we could evaluate this in that way, but unfortunately It doesn’t work like that. The Abbey and most larger theatres have a unsolicited scripts department and this where plays would be ‘submitted’ too. Very few of these plays are ever produced. The usual way a play would arrive on the abbey stage is through commissioning, where the Director will ask a playwright to write a play for the stage. The Abbey actively commissions women, and pays them to write plays, however very few of these plays are produced on the stage. So these plays remain in the drawer, as it were. Which plays are produced is at the discretion of the Director, as is who he commissions. He has commissioned substantially more plays by men than by women. There are just as many female playwrights as male in Ireland, but their work is not on at The Abbey or The Gate.
FFS!!! Not this again.
Jasus World Mens Day and they still can’t stop the nagging….even for one fooking day!!!
Spot on. Not a single story to mark International Men’s Day but what else would you expect from them?
As for this waking the feminists crap, they should count their blessings they don’t live in Saudi Arabia or some similar Stone Age state.
And this on the day that men’s domestic abuse support service Amen released their annual report. Get a grip Journal and wake up ffs.
I do count my blessings that I don’t live in Saudi Arabia, but I do live in a similar stone age state. Ireland has one of the worst records for women’s rights and human rights abuses.
In my article, I was highlighting that the gender inequality we are experiencing in the theatre is kind of ‘to be expected’ when you look at the wider picture of women’s place in Irish society.
Futher Reading:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/irelands-human-rights-record-womens-rights-are-not-respected-here-319882.html
I STAND WITH MEN IN THEATRE IN IRELAND.
Apologies.
I forgot the important bit.
#
Now I’m dancing.
Badly.
She writes a letter to the Journal complaining about the gender bias and “bottom half of the internet”. Yet still zero evidence on how many plays are submitted by women and how many are submitted by men for review by the theatres. Why is that too much to ask? Anecdotal evidence is not evidence.
We are living in a country steeped in great male writers and playwrights. It’s an Irish tradition. Particularly an Irish male tradition. I’m still waiting on this evidence cos she presented none I can take seriously.
Dramatists[edit]
A–D[edit]
John Banim (1798–1842)
Ivy Bannister (born 1951)
Sebastian Barry (born 1955)
Colin Bateman (born 1962)
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
Brendan Behan (1923–1964)
George A. Birmingham (1865–1950)
Dermot Bolger (born 1959)
Dion Boucicault (1820–1890)
Colm Byrne (born 1971)
Marina Carr (born 1964)
Austin Clarke (1896–1974)
Padraic Colum (1881–1972)
William Congreve (1670–1729)
James Cousins (1873–1956)
Cónal Creedon (born 1961)
Patrick Dempsey (Holocaust author) (born Dublin 1954)
Anne Devlin (writer) (born 1951)
Roddy Doyle (born 1958)
Gary Duggan (born 1979)
Lord Dunsany (1878–1957)
E–J[edit]
John Ennis
St John Ervine (1883–1971)
Bernard Farrell (born 1941)
Brian Friel (born 1929)
Oliver Goldsmith (c. 1728 – 1774)
Lady Augusta Gregory (1852–1932)
Gerald Griffin (1803–1840)
Declan Hughes
Denis Johnston (1901–1984)
Jennifer Johnston (born 1930)
Marie Jones (born c. 1951)
James Joyce (1882–1941)
James Augustus Hickey
K–P[edit]
Patrick Kavanagh
John B. Keane
Cathy Kelly
Thomas Kilroy
Jerome Kilty
James Lawless
C.S. Lewis
Hugh Leonard
Walter Macken
Micheál MacLiammoir
Ian Macpherson
Edward Martyn
John McCann
Donagh MacDonagh
Martin McDonagh
Frank McGuinness
Christina McKenna
Conor McPherson
M. J. Molloy
George Moore
Jimmy Murphy
John Murphy
Tom Murphy
T. C. Murray
Sean O’Casey
Joseph O’Connor
Antoine Ó Flatharta
Mary Devenport O’Neill
Mark O’Rowe
Cathal Ó Searcaigh
Robert Owenson (1744–1812)
Q–Z[edit]
Christina Reid (born 1942)
Lennox Robinson
Billy Roche
G. Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Peter Sheridan
George Shiels (1881–1949)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
John Millington Synge
Colin Teevan
Colm Tóibín
Joseph Tomelty
Mervyn Wall
Enda Walsh
Oscar Wilde (1845–1900)
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939)
Novelists[edit]
A–C[edit]
John Banim (1798–1842)
Michael Banim (1796–1874)
John Banville (born 1945)
Leland Bardwell (born 1922)
Sebastian Barry (born 1955)
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
Brendan Behan (1923–1964)
Gerard Beirne (born 1962)
Maeve Binchy (1940–2012)
George A. Birmingham (1865–1950)
Dermot Bolger (born 1959)
John Boyne (born 1971)
Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
Maeve Brennan (1916–1993)
John Broderick (1924–1989)
Lucy Caldwell (born 1981)
Jane Casey (born 1977)
Aifric Campbell (born before 1976)
William Carleton (1794–1869)
Austin Clarke (1896–1974)
Brian Cleeve (1921–2003)
Eoin Colfer (born 1965)
Padraic Colum (1881–1972)
Colm Connolly (born 1942)
Kieron Connolly (born 1961)
Cónal Creedon (born 1961)
D–J[edit]
Seamus Deane (born 1940)
Frank Delaney (born 1942)
Emma Donoghue (born 1969)
Gerard Donovan (born ?)
Roddy Doyle (born 1958)
Catherine Dunne (born 1954)
Lord Dunsany (1878–1957)
Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849)
Anne Marie Forrest (born 1967)
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)
Gerald Griffin (1803–1840)
Hugo Hamilton (born 1953)
Dermot Healy (born 1947)
Aidan Higgins (born 1927)
Melissa Hill[1]
Desmond Hogan (born 1950)
Arlene Hunt (born 1972)
Jennifer Johnston (born 1930)
Neil Jordan (born 1950)
James Joyce (1882–1941)
K–R[edit]
John B. Keane (1928–2002)
Molly Keane (1904–1996) (writing as M.J. Farrell)
Cathy Kelly (born 1966)
Marian Keyes (born 1963)
Charles Kickham (1828–1882)
David M. Kiely (born 1949)
Celine Kiernan (born 1967)
Conor Kostick (born 1964)
Derek Landy (born 1974)
James Lawless
C. S. Lewis (1899–1963)
Morgan Llywelyn (born 1937)
Brinsley MacNamara (1890–1963) (real name John Weldon, see Valley of the Squinting Windows)
Ian Macpherson, Deep Probings, the autobiography of a genius
David Marcus (born 1924)
Charles Robert Maturin (1782–1824)
Colum McCann (born 1965)
Barry McCrea (born 1974)
Frank McCourt (1930-2009)
John McGahern (1934–2006)
Christina McKenna (born 1957)
Anna McPartlin (born 1972)
Brian Moore (1921–1999)
George Moore (1852–1933)
Lady Morgan (Sidney Owenson) (c. 1776 – 1859)
Danny Morrison (born 1953)
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999)
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (born 1954)
Edna O’Brien (born c. 1932)
Philip Ó Ceallaigh (born 1968
Joseph O’Connor (born 1963)
Peadar O’Donnell (1893–1986)
Liam O’Flaherty (1896–1984)
Valentine O’Hara (1875–1941)
Jamie O’Neill (born 1962)
Brian O’Nolan (1912–1966) (writing as Flann O’Brien; journalistic pseudonym Myles na gCopaleen)
TS O’Rourke (born 1968)
Glenn Patterson (born 1961)
James Plunkett (1920–2003)
Keith Ridgway (born 1965)
Frank Ronan (born 1963)
S–Z[edit]
John W. Sexton (born 1958)
Darren Shan (born 1972)
Somerville and Ross (otherwise Edith Somerville (1858–1949) and Violet Florence Martin (1862–1915)
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
Bram Stoker (1847–1912)
Francis Stuart (1902–2000)
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
Kate Thompson (born 1959)
Colm Tóibín (born 1955)
Robert Tressell (1870-1911)
William Trevor (born 1928)
William Wall (born 1955)
Leonard Wibberley (1915-1983)
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
Poets[edit]
A–D[edit]
Adomnan (died 704)
Æ (George William Russell) (1867–1935)
William Allingham (1824–1889)
Beccan mac Luigdech (fl. c. 650)
Leland Bardwell (born 1922)
Eaton Stannard Barrett (1786–1820)
Richard Barrett (1740–1818)
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
Brendan Behan (1923–1964)
Gerard Beirne (born 1962)
Blathmac mac Cú Brettan (fl. c. 750)
Eavan Boland (born 1944)
Dermot Bolger (born 1959)
Pat Boran (born 1963)
Frances Browne (1816–1887)
Ciarán Carson (born 1948)
Patrick Chapman (born 1968)
Austin Clarke (1896–1974)
Brendan Cleary
Brian Coffey (1905–1995)
Colmán mac Lénéni (died 604)
Padraic Colum (1881–1972)
James Cousins (1873–1956)
Cuirithir of Connacht (fl. 7th century)
John Cunningham (1729–1773)
Dallan Forgaill (late 6th century)
Thomas Davis (1814–1845)
Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–1972)
Denis Devlin (1908–1959)
John Dillon (1816–1866)
Gerard Donovan (born ?)
William Drennan (died 1820)
Charles Gavan Duffy (1816–1903)
Seán Dunne (1956–1995)
Lord Dunsany (1878–1957)
Paul Durcan (1944)
E–L[edit]
Flann Mainistrech (died 1056)
Patrick Galvin (born 1927)
Monk Gibbon (1896–1987)
Oliver St John Gogarty (1878–1957)
Oliver Goldsmith (c. 1730 – 1774)
Stephen Gwynn (1864–1950)
Michael Hartnett (1944–1999)
Randolph Healy (born 1956)
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
F. R. Higgins (1896–1941)
Pearse Hutchinson (1927-2012)
Douglas Hyde (1860–1949)
Valentin Iremonger (1918–1991)
Diarmuid Johnson (born 1965)see Transcript Biography
John Jordan (1930–1988)
James Joyce (1882–1941)
Trevor Joyce (born 1947)
Patrick Kavanagh
Thomas Kinsella (born 1928)
Charles Kickham (died 1882)
Anatoly Kudryavitsky (born 1954)
Emily Lawless (1845–1913)
James Lawless
Francis Ledwidge (1887–1917)
C. S. Lewis (1899–1963)
James Liddy
Michael Longley (born 1939)
Luccreth moccu Chiara (fl. c. 580)
M–P[edit]
Oengus Celi De (fl. c. 800)
Denis Florence MacCarthy (1817–1868)
Donagh MacDonagh (1912–1968)
Thomas MacDonagh (1878–1916)
Patrick MacDonogh (1902–1961)
Seán MacFalls (born 1957)
Patrick MacGill (1889–1960)
Thomas MacGreevy (1893–1967)
Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)
Derek Mahon (born 1941)
James Clarence Mangan (1803–1849)
Hugh McFadden (born 1942)
Bryant H. McGill
Gerard McKeown (born 1980)
Nigel McLoughlin (born 1968)
Máire Mhac an tSaoi (born 1922)
Brian Merriman (1747–1805)
Alice Milligan (1865–1953)
John Montague (born 1929)
Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
Paul Muldoon (born 1951)
Gerry Murphy (born 1952)
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (born 1942)
Nuala Ní Chonchúir (born 1970)
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (born 1952)
Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (David O Bruadair)
Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh (c. 1580 – c. 1640)
Máirtín Ó Direáin (1910–1988)
Dennis O’Driscoll (1954-2012)
Seán Mór Ó Dubhagáin (died 1372)
Cinaed Ó hArtucain (died 975)
Mary Devenport O’Neill (1879–1967)
Antoine Ó Raifteiri (Anthony Raftery) (1784–1835)
Aogán Ó Rathaille (1675–1729)
Seán Ó Ríordáin (1916–1977)
Frank Ormsby (born 1947)
Cathal Ó Searcaigh (born 1956)
Seamus O’Sullivan
Eoghan Ó Tuairisc (Eugene Watters) (1919–1982)
Tom Paulin (born 1949)
Patrick Pearse (1879–1916)
Joseph Plunkett (1887–1916)
Q–Z[edit]
Anthony Raferty (c. 1784 – 1834)
George Reavey
Lennox Robinson
Gabriel Rosenstock (born 1949)
Adam Rudden (born 1983)
Blanaid Salkeld (1880–1959)
Maurice Scully (born 1952)
John W. Sexton (born 1958)
Eileen Shanahan (1901–1979)
James Simmons (1933–2001)
Michael Smith (born 1942)
Sydney Bernard Smith (1936 – 2008)
Geoffrey Squires (born 1942)
James Stephens (1880–1950)
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
Senchán Torpéist (fl. c. 580 – c. 650)
Katherine Tynan (1861–1931)
William Wall (born 1955)
Catherine Walsh (born 1964)
Jane Wilde
Oscar Wilde (1845–1900)
James Wills (1790–1868)
Macdara Woods (born 1942)
Frances Wynne (1863-1893)
W. B. Yeats (1865–1939)
Augustus Young (born 1943)
Short story writers[edit]
A–D[edit]
Ivy Bannister (born 1951)
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
Gerard Beirne (born 1962)
Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
Clare Boylan (1948–2006)
Patrick Boyle (1905–1982)
John Boyne (born 1971)
Maeve Brennan (1917–1993)
Joyce Cary (1888–1957)
William Carleton (1794–1849)
Patrick Chapman (born 1968)
Padraic Colum (1881–1972)
Daniel Corkery (1878–1964)
Cónal Creedon (born 1961)
Anne Devlin (writer) (born 1951)
Lord Dunsany (1878–1957)
E–L[edit]
Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849)
Brian Friel (born 1929)
Frank Gallagher (1893–1962)
Gerald Griffin (1803–1840)
Aidan Higgins (born 1927)
Desmond Hogan (born 1951)
John Jordan (1930–1988)
Neil Jordan (born 1950)
James Joyce (1882–1941)
Claire Keegan (born 1969)
Maeve Kelly (born 1930)
Benedict Kiely (1919–2007)
David M. Kiely (born 1949)
Mary Lavin (1912–1996)
James Lawless
Edmund Leamy (1848–1904)
Sheridan Le Fanu (1814–1873)
M–O[edit]
Walter Macken (1915–1967)
John MacKenna (born 1952)
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942)
Michael MacLaverty (1907–1992)
Bryan MacMahon (1909–1998)
Ian Macpherson (born 1951), comedy writer
Aidan Mathews (born 1956)
Eugene McCabe (born 1930)
John McGahern (1934–2006)
Christina McKenna (born 1957)
John Montague (born 1929)
Violet Florence Martin (1862–1923) of Somerville and Ross partnership
George A. Moore (1852–1933)
Val Mulkerns (born 1925)
Edna O’Brien (born 1932)
Kate Cruise O’Brien (born 1948)
Máirtín Ó Cadhain (1906–1970)
Pádraic Ó Conaire (1882–1928)
Frank O’Connor (1903–1966)
Julia O’Faolain (1933)
Sean O’Faolain (1900–1990)
Liam O’Flaherty (1896–1984)
Seamus O’Kelly (1881–1918)
P–Z[edit]
James Plunkett (1920–2003)
Victor O’D. Power (?-1918)
Lennox Robinson
John W. Sexton (born 1958)
Somerville and Ross (1858–1949) and (1862–1915)
James Stephens (1882–1950)
Colm Tóibín (born 1955)
William Trevor (born 1928)
William Wall (born 1955)
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
Writers on gardening[edit]
Diarmuid Gavin (born 10 May 1964)
Dermot O’Neill
Writers on music[edit]
John Waters (columnist) (born 1949)
Tilly Fleischmann (pianist) (1882-1967)
Aloys Fleischmann (composer) (1910-1992)
Writers on morality and ethics[edit]
John Duncan Craig (1830-1909)
Richard Baptist O’Brien (1809–1885)
Desmond Fennell (born 1929)
Catherine Mary MacSorley (1848-1929)
Fintan O’Toole (born 1958)
William Thompson (1775–1833)
John Waters (columnist) (born 1949)
Writers on philosophy[edit]
Desmond Fennell (born 1929)
John Moriarty (1938 – 2007)
William Thompson (1775–1833)
Writers on women’s issues[edit]
Maeve Kelly (born 1930)
Nell McCafferty (born 1944)
William Thompson (1775–1833)
Other writers[edit]
Seathrún Céitinn (Geoffrey Keating) (c. 1569 – c. 1644)
Brian Farrell
Roy Foster
Gerard Anthony Hayes-McCoy (1911–1975)
Gene Kerrigan
Robert Wilson Lynd, essayist (1879–1949)
F. S. L. Lyons (1923–1983)
Edward MacLysaght (1887–1986)
Dervla Murphy (travel writer born 1931)
John A. Murphy
George O’Brien (born 1945)
Richard Barry O’Brien (1847-1918)
John Cornelius O’Callaghan (1805-1883)
Tomás Ó Criomhthain (1856–1937)
John O’Hart (1824–1902)
Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (1904–1950)
Peig Sayers (1873–1958)
Maev-Ann Wren, author
I checked wiki for a list of Irish female playwrights and I got 19 names.
B
Maeve Binchy
Patricia Burke Brogan
C
Marina Carr
D
Teresa Deevy
Anne Downie
Dorothea Du Bois
G
Augusta, Lady Gregory
Elizabeth Griffith
H
Nancy Harris
Anne Le Marquand Hartigan
Rita Ann Higgins
J
Jennifer Johnston
K
Molly Keane
M
Nell McCafferty
Felicity McCall
Christina McKenna
Elaine Murphy (playwright)
O
Edna O’Brien
Mary Devenport O’Neill
Thanks Alesis, appreciate that.
I was just about to reference them in alphabetical order but that list will suffice.
Sterling work.
Well now I could hardly expect you to dance to Aretha Franklin and type at the same time.
Fiach Mac Conghail disgraced himself by caving in to feminist hysteria at that gathering.
Yes he did. But he’ll pay the price for it next year when the plays are slated by critics and no-one except the author and her mates turn up to watch it.
Pity the Abbey doesn’t come under the Freedom of Information act so we could see how many were submitted by men and how many by women. Then the selection process itself would also have to be judged to be discriminatory on a case by case basis. The numbers submitted alone still wouldn’t be evidence.
This is quite simply self entitlement based on nothing but self-entitlement and without a shred of evidence. I think it’s time Fiach was put on the rack and questioned in detail about this by a neutral interviewer.
Alesis, given the lack of women’s names in your second list that are in your first list, all that really shows are the inadequacies of relying solely on Wikipedia for research.
It’s more evidence than she provided, Derek.
That was like reading the lyrics to Endless Art by A House!
That’s appropriate. Feminists decided Endless Art oppressed them too.
Your list included John Waters, your argument is invalid.
Why you muppets….because they men have nothing to fockin do…..only write…while their wives…sisters etc looked after everything…..I noticed there is a load Od obviously young or middle aged men…farting around on the journal and Twitter with only sarcasm….boooohhhhoooo I so sad you haven’t a ride….
Jeez.
You’ll never get a man with that attitude young miss.
Alesis a link posted on a previous article regarding this showed 150 names of current female playwrights and it was not a complete list by the authors admission.
What the fcuk is going on here…..
It’s perceived as “Particularly an Irish male tradition” because of the issues outlined in this article and the #WakingTheFeminists conversation overall. More plays by men get staged, restaged and therefore published and remembered by history. There’s a wealth of plays by women in the Irish canon that have not been re-staged and therefore not remembered. Similarly the women of 1916 who were airbrushed and written out of the story we tell ourselves.
A more comprehensive database of Irish Theatre can be found here: http://www.irishplayography.com
They are actually standing with us, so if your with them your with us too. Thanks!
Alesis,
You have just provided the evidence yourself. Do you think there should be such a difference in the volume of names on those lists? What possible reasons could there be for that? Is it logical to assume men are better than women at essentially telling stories.
The evidence you crave doesnt exits because The Abbey doesn’t work on the basis of submissions.
The Abbey and most larger theatres have a unsolicited scripts department and this where plays would be ‘submitted’ too. Very few of these plays are ever produced, be they by men or women.
The usual way a play would arrive on the abbey stage is through commissioning, where the Director will ask a playwright to write a play for the stage. The Abbey actively commissions women, and pays them to write plays, however very few of these plays are produced on the stage. So these plays remain in the drawer, as it were. Which plays are produced is at the discretion of the Director, as is who he commissions. He has commissioned substantially more plays by men than by women. There are just as many female playwrights as male in Ireland, but their work is not on at The Abbey or The Gate.
The Arts Council do have a submissions or application process for funding, and they fund nearly 50/50 men and women. I would attribute this to peer review. This is the evidence that there are women out there who are deemed worthy.
Why do you think thats why he admitted his bias?
Hi Alesis,
The Abbey does come under freedom of information.
You should pursue that avenue to get your answers if you still cant believe my post.
“Activism” seems to be the lifestyle choice of the untalented. I wasn’t good enough to be a professional soccer player in England. Do you see me and others claiming it’s because we’re Irish?
What a joke.. Rent a protest.
Cop on Grace. From everyone.
BTW, the “disappeared” isn’t the most tasteful thing she could have put on her placard.
I take it you won’t be joining me in my campaign for gender equality in Irish eurovision entries then?
On wikipedia.. there is definitely more male playwrights than female..
Category:Male dramatists and playwrights on wikipedia : 908
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Male_dramatists_and_playwrights
Category:Women dramatists and playwrights: 272
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Women_dramatists_and_playwrights
and I think in Ireland, there is definitely a tradition of a higher ratio of male playwrights (unless im shown evidence to the contrary)
But we are blessed to have some internationally famous female playwrights .. such as Marina Karr..
and I saw her play in the abbey 2 months ago!!!
Hi T Beckett is back.
I’m sorry that you weren’t good enough to be a soccer player in England.
I don’t think the parallel holds up.
There are women writers, directors, actors who are good enough.
Not because they are women, just because they are.
Our society actively discriminates against women, and gender equality is a consequence of that.
What do you think I need to Cop On to? I’m interested to hear your message for me.
I didn’t make the placard, thats not me in the photo. But I imagine what Tara was getting at was how women who one minute had a career in the arts seem to vanish overnight, as soon as they have children.
T Beckett
This is a post explaining Tara’s placard.
https://wakingthefeminists.wordpress.com/2015/11/18/tara-derrington/
“The assumption is that plays written by women aren’t good enough”
OK then love.
Prove the critics wrong.
Exactly. She makes the assumption that they are the same.
“… with most of the independent companies led by women…” So, the *apparent* gender bias in the independent theatre companies, as acknowledged by the author, is fine because women have the perceived advantage but, in the Abbey and the Gate, the exact opposite is unacceptable. Equality indeed..
@TommyRyder How do you decide which plays are good and which are bad?
Tommy Ryder, the critics think I am pretty good actually. I get pretty good reviews.
I don’t have a problem with critics.
Its you I have a problem with.
Zzzzzz…
Someone should tell her it’s international mens day today.
My article is not against men.
I know. What he meant was someone at the Journal should have told you rather than throwing you in at the deep end by publishing it on such a day. He should have made that clearer. Your article certainly wasn’t anti-male and it was refreshing on those grounds. It was also your personal experience and that’s also a nice change.
Still doesn’t mean I agree with you btw, I don’t. But good luck.
Middle class oppression – where will it all end
More people go to League of Football then the bloody theatre. That should give you an indication of were this non-issue ranks on the national consciousness.
I am working class.
Modern feminism doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of equality. Playwrights are generally judged by merit and the value of their work; not just because they happen to be a woman.
They certainly should be. The complaint, though, from a playwright who happens to be a woman, is that this doesn’t always happen. She provides anecdotal and statistical evidence for this, and comments on how it has been and will be dismissed “as women whining, complaining, and needing to be put back in their place” something for which this comments section provides ample evidence.
Well a self loathing white, cis, heterosexual male would say that.
Derek, I saw the anecdotes, but didn’t see any statistical evidence, care to share?
“If you’re looking for evidence, if the ratio of one to ten, is not enough, look to the independent theatre sector. It doesn’t exist in a radically different set of circumstances, it lives and breathes in the same Ireland as these institutions, yet it manages to do a much better job of reflecting the diversity of Irish life, with most of the independent companies being led by women; Druid, Rough Magic, ANU Productions, WILLFREDD, Talking Shop Ensemble and my own company, THEATREclub is made up of five women and three men.”
Anecdotal evidence is utterly meaningless. Furthermore, without the numbers of plays submitted for consideration by men and women, the statistical evidence is incomplete and therefore also meaningless. Just because this gaggle of feminist’s complaints and demands are “dismissed as women whining, complaining”, doesn’t mean that that’s not exactly what they are. How can they expect to be taken seriously when trying to force “reform” and their twisted interpretation of “equality” on the Abbey selection process without a shred of credible supporting evidence for any imbalance or shortcoming in the selection policy in its current form?
Complete waffle,thems the breaks.
Men are more likely to fall to the bottom of society than women. If you are a man you are twice as likely to be unemployed, three times more likely to be homeless and five times more likely to commit suicide. Them’s the breaks.
Why…cause you need to get up your holes and get busy like women…that’s why women don’t live as long as men……you burden us to death….
Marie, not wishing to be controversial but women live longer than men not the other way around. This has been so for quite some time. Is this an inequality you would care to comment upon? Men work hard by the way but your commentary suggests you don’t value this. They also work in areas which are more physically demanding, outdoors and riskier. Any observations on the inequality this poses for women? Have women been “disappeared” here as well? Perhaps it is indeed the case that the output of women in this sphere has been affected by family life obligations. What do you propose as a remedy other than mandatory quotas?
Most whinging letters are written by women. We need more whinging men.
Plenty of whinging men in the comments ;)
You never stop whining…
Loads of them here.
No shortage of men complaining in government, on tv or in the newspapers or indeed in the comments. There is nothing whingey about what I have written.
Maybe if they stopped making out like its a big deal a woman has written, directed or produced something; they would then gain more respect for what they produce rather than what they are. When I hear “Women’s xyz” it automatically clicks as feminist shite that has a message I won’t buy into anyway. However if you make something decent off your talent alone then I will watch it because believe it or not people don’t like things because they were made by a male or female. People like things based on merit and quality.
@ Stephen It doesn’t sound like you’re the target audience for the upcoming “Women’s xyz: Festival of Feminist Shite”
Is there never a day now when there isn’t someone moaning about some perceived inequality. I couldn’t agree more with one of the posters above who stated that a poster with large lettered ‘disappeared’ on it is the height of bad taste, and deliberately controversial.
Get a life ffs. All this nonsense is about self promotion and nothing more.
What makes you think that James?
Helpful tip seeing as you wonder why nobody pays attention to you. 1 – Stop craving and demanding attention. It’s offputting as hell.
@Tim Outrage Who are you talking to?
Hi Tim, thanks for the tip.
Plenty of people pay attention to me, try googling me.
I don’t crave or demand attention.
Quotas in art is the death of Western civilisation.
That’s exactly what Stephen Fry said when asked why he’s packing in QI. Gender quotas on the panel.
Did he now? Got a link for that?
Grace I couldn’t even read the whole of your article after this line: “I’m scared of ‘the bottom half of the internet’. Perhaps had you phrased it differently it wouldn’t have read so much like a comment of one that sees themselves as better than the rest but as things stand it implies that you either agree me with or else you’re in the “bottom half” of the internet, a very immature position to take.
The bottom half of the internet is a common enough phrase referring to comments sections like this one, with the implication that it is also generally of a lower quality than the top half – the blogs and articles.
Comments like “iron me friggan shirt and wisht woman” are the sort of stupid sexist dross that leads to this moniker. More green thumbs than red thumbs for it too.
The top half isn’t exactly a bastion of eloquence in this instance either
@derek
You are expecting too much from some of the commentators here on journal. Happy fellas day to you all!
You’re talking about a website which posted an article which claimed that air conditioners are sexist. The ‘top half’ isn’t exactly filled with top content.
‘The assumption is that plays written by women aren’t good enough’, have you ever thought that maybe plays written or directed or produced or acted by women aren’t good enough!?
Their assumption seems to be “just because a play has been written by a woman it is good enough”. … Besides being an art form plays have to make money and that is made possible by putting on plays that people will go to see. At the end of the day you could stage plays written by women 50% of the time but my guess would be that the theater would go out of business pretty quickly. The tendency of a lot of women playwrights is to write plays. concerning “womens issues” rather than just write plays reflecting society as a whole. That gets pretty boring pretty quickly.
@Rasputin Are you a troll? Doesn’t matter… I’d love to hear some specific examples of “womens issues”. Sounds LOL!
Women are actually so annoying. Who’s ever heard a woman say “I can be one of the lads!”….sick of all the lies & they are bad at comedy too. Stick to kittens, cooking and beanie babies ladies :-D
They’re no good at cooking either. Let the lads lead the charge on that one too..
misogyny
Just iron me friggan shirt and wisht woman!
Can’t get the image of Chandler Bing crouching down in the front row while some tyrant feminist shrieks ‘why don’t you like me?’ at him out of my head now.
Ridiculous carry on !
There are enough queens in theatre as it is.
Well having read a lot of plays, that assumption is totally correct! Why the Abbey Theatre caved in to the “Waking The Feminists” rubbish I’ll never know!
More important things in the world at this particular time.
All a bit of a rant if you ask me.
Happy International Men’s Day everybody.
how about a play titled a Feminists in the Kitchen,recipe for happiness.”
There’s the bottom half of the internet for you.
Generally, the standard of comments are often a reflection of the standard of the article. I still don’t see anyone defending or agreeing with her piece accept you Derek.
I would have thought many women would be coming out of the woodwork and agreeing if she was right.
Alesis, women often avoid the comments section, especially on articles like this because, well. just look at it.
@ derek
Ha ha ha
And it’s very much appreciated Derek.
Suddenly the feminist activists have become shrinking violets afraid to even comment on an article? Maybe they’ve fallen asleep again
@ peter
Ha that is one thing I am not …….
Well hahaha etc Roisin. Why not make a point?
@Alesis She’s absolutely right. I’d say a lot of women have better things to do than educate you, but if you type “Waking the Feminists” into Google you’ll find a lot of people who agree with her
More to the point though, what are all the women doing in the woodwork? Worrying
Great article! It’s fantastic and heartening to follow #wakingthefeminists
To those of you denying the existence of gender bias, I respectfully suggest that you consider this: This article is written by someone who has been working in the theatre for the past six years as a director and producer. She is telling you about her experiences. Unless you have a similar level of professional experience in theatre, she knows more about this than you do (yes, even if you have read a lot of plays). She has insight that you don’t have here by virtue of the fact that this is her career and, yes, by virtue of the fact that she is a woman and has lived experience that she has very capably and clearly articulated here.
Sure, there are things that you know more about. This isn’t one of them.
If for some reason you’re not willing to believe this woman then have a read of any of the upwards of 60 testimonies published online at wakingthefeminists.wordpress.com . Some of these people have a lifetime of experience working in theatre. They also know more about this than you do. They know more about being a woman and they know more about working in theatre. Hurray! They can answer all your questions!
If for whatever reason you’re not one to be persuaded by the lived experiences of others then consider the statistics. In a programme commemorative of 1916 (intrinsically political, then), the National Theatre somehow ended up with just one play out of ten that was written by a woman. A glance at the programme of the Dublin Fringe Festival (to take one example) shows that there is no scarcity of emerging playwrights or directors who are women. Since 2006, just 12.3% of the plays shown on the Abbey Stage have been by women, despite having an affirmative action policy since 2009.
As Grace puts it so well above: “It’s glaringly obvious, if in 2015, the national theatre cannot reflect the experiences of half the nation, than we have a problem with equal opportunity”. Surely common sense and lived experience tells us that it can’t simply come down to men being that much better at writing plays than women, right? So there must be other factors at play. I wonder what they could be. If only somebody knew… Oh wait! Let’s listen to all the female playwrights, directors, producers and actors who are telling us what those other factors are. Perfecto!
Also, here’s some interesting research about gender equality in English theatres where we can find more relevant information: http://www.tonictheatre-advance.co.uk/learning/#key-learning
My wife wrote, produced, and directed both films and plays. Never, at any point, did she experience sexism or bias in any way. She also successfully applied for grants from the arts council, and at one point borrowed 20k from the credit union to make a short film she wanted to make. She has also written, produced and directed adverts for TV. Never, not ONCE, has she encountered bias or sexism. Now, why is that?
Btw, if there is a genuine problem, it should be addressed. But you cannot square that with the experience of my wife and her female colleagues. She’s out of the business now, but only as we started a family.
As someone suggested, entering the plays with no names attached, and therefore no gender associated. seems to me to be a very reasonable way to go about this.
@Alesis I don’t know why that is, but it’s fantastic. Good for your wife! I mean that.
Unfortunately, a lot of other women do seem to be encountering bias and sexism akin to what is described in this article
As for the suggestion about plays being entered without names attached, it’s an interesting suggestion, but I suspect the bias isn’t so overt or straightforward that it could be corrected that way. Is it possible that the question is about how we decide what’s “good” and what’s “bad” and who gets to decide?
Here’s a quote from tonictheatre http://www.tonictheatre-advance.co.uk/learning/#key-learning) :
“It is perhaps human nature that all of us will feel drawn towards working with certain people, and that when we make decisions about who to employ, a certain amount of cultural bias will be at play: often we will instinctively select people we feel on a similar wavelength to, or with whom we have things in common. But it’s for this very reason that theatres need a diversity of people in creative decision-making roles; people with different tastes, backgrounds and perspectives, whether that’s on a Board or in a script-reading team. Otherwise, it is less likely certain artists will be championed, or have that all-important chance taken on them when they’re starting out or trying to reach the next rung of the career ladder.”
Many commenters here seem unwilling to accept anything less than a double-blind peer-reviewed test as proof that sexism is an issue, and in the absence of such, adamantly believe that their assumption – that the gender imbalance is entirely due to women being less able to write good plays than men – must be correct.
Common sense won’t change their minds. Personal testimony won’t change their minds. Reason won’t change their minds. Proven examples of similar bias in other areas of the arts won’t change their minds. They haven’t formed their opinions based on evidence and evidence won’t change them.
I know @ Derek Walsh, and even if the such a test could and did exist I’m sure they’d find cause to dismiss that too. It’s amazing how resistant to evidence and logic ideology can be, contorting itself into all kinds of strange shapes for its own protection!
Have to agree Derek. It’s like swimming against the tide trying to bring objective thinking in to some of these threads. Even the director acknowledging his bias was not enough for most on here, instead they say he was bullied into it by wailing feminists!
Surely I should get to watch what are deemed to be the best productions to put on, regardless of playwright/director gender?… seriously if you put gender quotas on what we watch you will drive down attendance… put on what is worth watching. FFS, sometimes this feminism craic is pure waffle…. go whinge about not having quotas on hard labour jobs.
Hi @Tomás Doyle
What’s your favourite play?
Oh! So it was “Waking” the feminist.
I knew I must have misread it the first time.
Good article Grace. As usual articulate and smart. Ná bac leis na fir amaideacha anseo. Maith thú.
“If you want to know the truth; it’s because you’re a woman, it’s because you’re working class and it’s because you’re young.”
I would bet the working class and young factors were far, far larger than the gender factor.
@Cal Cryton but isn’t it great to talk about all three?
now we have the top half of the internet, looking down at the bottom half.maybe the bottom half have more things to do in there day, which is probably why the odd drive by quips are more then likely aims at the author/authors of the rubbish that is the journal and some of its 24 hr residential subscribers..
If the feminists aren’t happy, why don’t they set up a new theatre and stand on their own feet.
If their work is up to scratch, they shouldn’t have any problems with getting bums on seats.
Why are we wasting taxpayers money like this, let them all stand on their own feet.
@nigel
she did if I read it right….
Are you prepared to offer this new theatre half of the €6.1 million of taxpayers’ money that the Abbey currently gets? That would be fair, wouldn’t it?
@Nigel Davis are feminists exempt from paying taxes? I had no idea
Martha Plimpton writes ‘theater’ we write ‘theatre’. Night vs nite – we use British English not American English. When in Rome… Maybe she does not understand the error because some people say that women can’t write.
Martha Plimpton wrote in American English because she’s American. That’s not an error.
Dear diary I got my period today , the end
More plays are written by men than by women. Most plays written by both men and by women don’t make it to stage. In other words, most of the plays that don’t make it to the stage are written by men than by women.
It is very easy to blame society, the patriarchy, the “bottom half” commenters, or anyone except yourself really when you don’t realise your goals and dreams in life. Its because you are a “victim” in some way, not just because the quality of your work wasn’t good enough. Pure ego driven. The feminist outrage brigade was all too happy to take up this cause, a perfect fit for their ideology.
When a higher percentage of plays written by females vs. percentage of plays written by males gets rejected – then there may be something to discuss .
But if the solution is to introduce gender quotas into plays – I can see my interest in going to plays quickly fading.
@ Vincent O Mahony “more plays are written by men than by women”… can we have a source for this?
Also, do you have any pictures of the feminist outrage brigade? Maybe sliding down the poles in the feminist outrage station or riding round in the big red feminist outrage truck? Sounds like fun!! ;)
He doesn’t need a source. Only people challenging the assumption that everything is exactly as it should be need a source. People like Vincent who provide ad hoc explanations for an area where they have no expertise are free to make up whatever they like.
This comment section is written by tossers for tossers. To change my opinion I challenge any of you to tell me where I can find a play that you have written.
Thank you bunch of tossers, very sad to think this is what we have….what respect do they have got their mothers….sisters….wives…girlfriends….
Agus níl aon drámaí i nGaeilge ach an oiread. Agus tá drámaí amuigh ansin.
I think a good way of addressing the gender imbalance shown by the Abbey Theatre in it’s programme for 2016 would be to have nine out of ten plays in 2017 written by women. Further to that I would say that what is of interest to women is not always of interest to men and vice versa and therefore as women make up 50% of the viewing audience, the plays should be selected by a panel that is 50% women. I think that makes it FairPlay
have your say