About

This research project has developed out of a year-long research project into women in theatre I conducted with Sphinx Theatre Company, the UK’s leading women’s theatre company, and the University of Cambridge from 2018 - 2019. The findings from this study were published in 2020 in The Guardian newspaper. The study revealed continuing inequality for women in theatre and has led to meetings with Arts Council England and the UK government, amongst others, to help inform policy changes. My follow-up research was published in The Guardian in 2021 and brought together for the first time the most recent leading research on women in theatre, partnered by The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Equity, Sphinx, University Women in the Arts, ERA 50:50 and others:https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jan/13/uk-report-reveals-disgraceful-gender-inequality-in-the-arts. My most recent research report, the Women in Theatre Survey, was recently also published in The Guardian, with findings highlighting the need for action to address the impact of the pandemic on women in the arts: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/oct/09/theatre-in-uk-faces-exodus-of-women-after-pandemic-study-finds

As an award winning writer with a background in the UK, Australia and America, where I have won major awards including one of the UK’s leading playwriting awards and completed my Masters degree in Playwriting at Yale, this research project seeks to build on this research by investigating an important gap in the literature - how playwriting can be used to help with gender equality in theatre. Research by Aston (2017) and Haining and Heim (2019) amongst others has found an urgent need for this research. Much research on the pandemic has also found gender inequality is likely to increase post-pandemic without action, making this research even more urgent. This research project will focus in particular on the role UK playwriting can play in improving gender equality in UK theatre.