Employed LORT Design positions by Gender

[nick_tochelli]

Fascinating look into the genders of those employed in LORT Theatres in design positions. I believe most of us had an inkling the swings in gender would be like this, but what I was floored by is how uneven it actually is.

http://howlround.com/who-designs-in-lort-theatres-by-gender

Has anyone else noticed a different trend where they work? Are there more women lighting, scenic, and sound designers where you are? How about guys designing costumes? I personally would have been interested in the SM split, but I get the point the author was aiming for.

[Maribeth]

Really interesting, thanks for sharing! You're right, I had a sense of the gender breakdown of the different design areas, but it did surprise me. I feel like in my area there are a slightly higher number of female sound designers, but a lower amount of male costume designers. Keeping in mind that I don't exclusively work on the LORT contract- would be interesting to see breakdowns on more contracts.

If you're interested in the SM split, check out the 2013 UIowa SM survey. It's really interesting to see how the gender breakdown shifts over time. More female SMs in their early 20s and 30s, but as the age bracket reaches 40s, the balance starts to shift male. (It's not broken down by AEA contract vs. gender, but I know David McGraw is an SMNetwork member. Maybe an interesting question for future surveys?)

[nick_tochelli]

I looked up the Iowa report to see if they broke up by contracts but since it didn't I left it out. I would actually love to see if it's possible to include types of contracts vs. gender the next survey.

I will say I was more thrilled at the Tony Awards by the two female lighting designers who won more than I was the clean sweep of the women in the book and score categories. Both are hard to achieve but I feel like women designers have a much harder hill to climb. That is strictly opinion and is not fact based per se.

[Maribeth]

Round two of the survey.