The Gender Pay Gap in Professional Theatre
by Susana Correa-Avila Robb
The following article was written as part of Chico State Theatre program’s Social Justice in Theatre course. For more information about Chico State Theatre please visit www.csuchico.edu
Audiences flock to the theater to see stories that reflect not only their experiences but perhaps feelings they have not let themselves embody until they are in their seats. That storytelling is achieved through not just by the actors but by all the work technical designers put into enhancing the story. Designers' work is displayed all over the stage but they do not bow at curtain call and their behind-the-scenes work-life goes unnoticed. This article aims to bring awareness to some of the obstacles that female-presenting and gender non-conforming designers face in professional theatre and highlights changes that would help designers achieve equity in their field.
Technical designers mirror the rest of the theatrical field in being overwhelmingly white cisgender male-dominated. In a survey of 589 female-identifying designers…ninety percent of study respondents reported having experienced a negative work environment, gender-based harassment, and/or pay disparity.” (Clements) For a profession that tries to build a narrative of being progressive this could not be more misleading.
As someone who is both a performer and a costume shop worker, I was surprised to see that income disparity and gender inequity exist so persistently in this art form. This article started as an informal conversation between myself and Elizabeth Davis, Chico State’s Costume Shop Manager and Designer. As I was hemming a sleeve, we got to talking about pay disparity in our field and shockingly realized how it impacted both of our lives. While discussing a production we will both be working on together, I inquired about the compensation she will be receiving. Luckily, the company we are working with is open to negotiation and was transparent with Davis about the number they were offering their Scenic Designer, who happens to be male. “It’s so ingrained in their minds that they should offer a scenic designer more…” she explains, “because of the stereotype that they do more labor.” Clements, a producer and manager based out of NYC mentions this pay disparity comes from “the traditional cultural expectations of the conventional male-female binary as it relates to labor in the United States.” Elizabeth and I continued this conversation in a more formal interview to discuss her perspective, being a female-identifying costume designer, and how this impacts her work in this field. Her list was long: “I am in charge of dance concerts, managing the budget for the shows [four a school year], costuming choir, opera if it’s around, rendering for all the shows…” These are only some of her responsibilities but she additionally teaches her students, myself included, about ways to succeed in the industry as a designer.
More generally, there is a lack of global majority representation in the field of design. Broadway has never seen a female-presenting sole sound designer. (Clements) People that hire “may inadvertently exclude women by sourcing candidates from their internal networks or using gendered language in the job description.” (Clements) Even though the impacts of long-hour work weeks and inequitable work conditions affect all in the theatre industry, it disproportionately impacts women of color and non-binary people. Below are the results of a study conducted by designer and advocate Porsche McGovern.
These results show that gender identity is wildly connected to the hiring process and people of the global majority take the brunt of this exclusivity. But what happens when they get in the door? A study conducted by Diep Tran shows that the “589 responses from female-identifying designers and production personnel…found two key obstacles faced by these groups: gender discrimination and lack of support for working parents.”
Lack of support for parents kept coming up in my research as a reason people leave the field altogether. People that can reproduce or that desire to start having families in this field have to consider the appropriate times to begin a family. Men or people not responsible for carrying a child are given the choice of whether or not they want to start a family and at what time. How will it impact their career? What season is best to have a child? Those carrying the child have many more factors to consider. Being a parent in this industry, for the demanding schedule, is not easy, but I believe that it can be easier.
A new hope formulates as more people speak up about the obstacles and challenges in the industry. Designers and employees alike demand pay transparency and open dialogue about the challenges in the industry. On Our Team is an advocacy group for pay equity in theatre and has managed “to successfully advocate for pay transparency on the job sites of Playbill, BroadwayWorld, Southeastern Theatre Conference, and Minnesota Playlist.” (American Theatre ) On Our Team created a certification system that will allow creatives in this industry to choose companies that have their badge. The badge stands for expectations that actively challenge the industry’s inequitable pay gap. Instead of working under an outdated gendered system of pay, the goal is to work with the access needs of the employees.
The more that we can have conversations about these problems, the more solutions will appear. Many companies are taking active approaches to re-writing policies to create a safe(er) work environments for all intersecting identities. “The American Shakespeare Center has enacted a series of changes: One of their commitments is a 40-hour workweek. They have implemented a five-day workweek, paid vacations, and holidays or holiday equivalents for all.” (Clements) Another way of changing the industry is by having hiring practices that Tran proposes in their article:
Creating job postings for every open position and requiring that every candidate formally apply and interview
Listing minimal required qualifications in job ads, which helps prevent people of color and women from self-selecting out [xx]
Directly recruiting candidates from underrepresented communities
Requiring that hiring committees create a rubric on which to evaluate candidates so candidates are assessed on an equal basis
Additionally, the industry should create a space that feels safer for the people that are hired, decreasing the number of people that are chased out due to workplace conditions.
These are just a few of the ways work environments are changing to include more diversity, inclusivity, and equity. Having these practices and more diversity, in general, will create better theatre for us all. When people are happy to work, their work will be better. When people have their access needs met, they will be more likely to return to the workplace. Enough is enough, we are entering a new era for theatre where we define what we need, not the other way around.
Creating safe and inclusive working conditions for female-identifying designers will invite more non-binary designers to speak up for their needs in the workplace too. There is simply not enough representation in the field for non-binary workers but that does not mean they deserve less. Accommodating our pre-conceived notions about the norms in our field of work is scary, challenging, and uncomfortable but the more we do it, the happier our workplace will be. Our art will change as much as we put effort into taking care of ourselves and our workers.
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Works Cited
“Addressing Gender Inequity in Theatrical Design.” NYU Wagner Review, 15 Nov. 2021, https://www.thewagnerreview.org/2021/11/addressing-gender-inequity-in-theatrical-design/.
Doherty, Sorcha, et al. “Infographic.” HowlRound Theatre Commons, https://howlround.com/infographic-0.
Editors, American Theatre. “On Our Team Launches Pay Equity Tracking System.” AMERICAN THEATRE, 7 Feb. 2022, https://www.americantheatre.org/2022/02/07/on-our-team-launches-system-to-track-pay-equity-in-theatre/.
Lampert-Greaux, Ellen. “Gender Parity in Lort Theatres: A New Survey by Porsche Mcgovern.” Live Design Online, 10 July 2020, https://www.livedesignonline.com/business-people-news/gender-parity-lort-theatres-a-new-survey-by-porsche-mcgovern.
Tran, Diep. “Why so Few Female Designers? A New Study May Have the Answers.” AMERICAN THEATRE, 13 July 2021, https://www.americantheatre.org/2019/09/13/why-so-few-female-designers-a-new-study-may-have-the-answers/.