#wewant50

Victoria Elena N
Nov 16, 2015
2 min read

It’s 2015 and it’s an exciting time to be a woman. With the success of mainstream women like Tina Fey, GIRLS on HBO, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Mindy Kahling, Broad City – we are starting to see and hear our voices and our experiences more in the mainstream media. It’s very exciting. It’s exciting that you walk into an improv class and see women and men. It’s exciting that we have some strong female players in our own community. It’s exciting that Second City main stages have gender balanced casts. And with this excitement, comes a false notion that women’s voices are equally represented now. But the truth is ---- we have a long way to go. Here are just a few statistics from sources like the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media –

Only 20% of writers for mainstream TV and movies are women.

Only 10% of all films have a gender balanced cast.

Only 7% of directors are women.

When it comes to our own community – how many female directors and coaches do you see? How many female teachers?

And when it comes to your typical comedy club – only 8.3% of comedy club headliners are women. And that’s just one grim statistic.

If we were talking about my credit card interest rate, I’d be totally fine with 8.3%. But we are talking about women’s voices. Women’s stories. Your voices. Your stories. We don’t want a shitty 8.3%. We’re here to negotiate our contract with life - We want at least 50%. And we deserve it. I say “we” – because no woman is going to get there alone.