thanks to Jenifer Toksvig for this depressing but sadly not surprising link.
But why?
Well, this is what I’m thinking …
For any women to have a ‘position of power’ at the moment she has to have achieved an enormous amount and worked incredibly hard to get there. (and/or had Murdoch/Hilton/Trump/Windsor etc for her Dad.)
Which makes her wary of promoting the work of other women because she might be :
a) accused of bias or favouritism
b) nervous of promoting other women to her level because there is still a useful ‘stands-out’ value in being the one woman among many man
c) given that much of the arts is a man’s world, she may already just prefer the work of men anyway, and that’s WHY she’s got to the position she has …
Added to that, if men are writing more, and if women are still nervous to offer their work for fear of rejection, and given we live in a world where when women write about family it’s called denigrated as domestic, whereas when men write about family it’s called universal (cf Mike Leigh), and if women don’t want to produce work by women about women (for all the above reasons), and given we still seem to the think the 3:1, or 4:1 ratio is about right (or simply blindly don’t even notice the 4 men comedians to 1 women on HIGNFY, 3 men politicians to 1 women on Question Time, 3 men gardeners to 1 woman on Gardeners Question Time! etc etc) … well, we’re just not there yet.
But hey, 160 years ago we weren’t even writing under our own names. In parts of Afghanistan we’re not even allowed to go to school. In the Congo they’re raping us as a war tactic. So we should be grateful for what we’ve got, right?
Aaaaaagh!
Feminism : nothing to do with burning your bra, everything to do with options.
Not There Yet.
Not Writing But Blogging 
Stella – I DO notice the one in three or four ratio on programmes you mention and it depresses me. Not qualified to say much about the theatre as I rarely get the chance to go. But you make a good point about women wanting to be “stand outs” and that maybe hindering their promotion of other women – perhaps even subconsciously if we’re being kind?
Lovely piece by Michele Hanson in the Guardian today berating married women for taking their husband’s name – and the inevitable accompanying “Oh I took my husband’s name cos I was SO glad to get a bloke” piece.
No, we’re not there yet. Sometimes, having read The Female Eunuch at the age of 16 over 30 years ago, I think we’re going backwards.
But let’s try to stay optimistic, if we can?
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I am optimistic. I do see it getting (marginally) better. I do see there are changes. but it IS slow. and the plight of some women unbearably awful. wonder if anyone would have the guts to cover Woman is the Nigger of the World these days?
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Stella,
It is pretty depressing and I’ve experienced the women on women thing myself in the theatre world as well as in other walks of life. It is about confidence and, sad to say, fear of losing a grip. I think we all need to get a much greater grip on just about everything.
Good to see you last Saturday. Get in touch.
Linda
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