Arts Council England Agrees To Work With Leading Women In Theatre To Improve Gender Equality

Arts Council England has agreed to provide a written response to and in person meeting on recommendations for gender equality emerging from last week's major Women in Theatre Forum at Trafalgar Studios in London.

The Arts Council's response follows last week's major Women In Theatre Forum which brought together leading women working in theatre across the UK and which was hosted by Sphinx Theatre, the UK's foremost women's theatre company advocating for gender equality, University Women in the Arts, the mentoring programme to improve the transition for women from the studying the arts to working in the arts, and the December Group, a New Group of women working in theatre who are dedicated to improving gender equality.

The Forum included research from Sphinx Theatre's year long research project run last year with Jennifer Tuckett at the University of Cambridge which found, amongst other findings, that all 10 NPO Artistic Directors interviewed highlighted the need for Arts Council support in terms of reaching gender equality in theatre, with one Artistic Director stating ""I don't really feel like this is a focus from ACE - I think more of a focused discussion around this and a higher profile of it in the Creative Case (is needed)."

Other research shared at the Forum included work by the December Group which found the Arts Council's new ten year strategy document does not refer to women in the body of the document when it refers to underrepresented groups.

Sue Parrish, Artistic Director of Sphinx Theatre, said: "All the research evidence proves that intervention in supporting underrepresented groups by the Arts Council is hugely successful in changing the cultural landscape. We are simply urging a level playing field for women across the performing arts."

Jennifer Tuckett, academic, Director of University Women in the Arts and Research and Literary Director at Sphinx Theatre, said: "Our year long research project last year found, both in terms of statistics and in terms of interviews with those working in theatre, that gender equality and parity still has not been reached in UK theatre. Research from Australia shows specific schemes for women and concrete action can make a huge difference. We are delighted that, out of the Forum, we have the offer of a written response to recommendations from the Forum from the Director of Strategy at the Arts Council, Michelle Dickson, and an agreement to meet with us to discuss the way forwards from Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of the Arts Council. We look forward to working with the Arts Council to develop concrete measures for gender equality for inclusion in the Arts Council's new strategy and delivery plan. If we work together, we can bring about change".

Speakers at the Women in Theatre Forum included Gemma Bodinetz, Artistic Director of Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive of Nottingham Playhouse, director Paulette Randall, Artistic Director of Theatre 503 Lisa Spirling, who was representing Stage Directors UK, Assistant General Secretary of The Writers' Guild Lesley Gannon, Chair of Equity's Women's Committee Kelly Burke, co-founder of ERA 50: 50 Polly Kemp and co-founder of PIPA Cassie Raine.

More information on Sphinx Theatre's year long research project is available here: https://sphinxtheatre.co.uk/the-research-reports/