Between August 2017 and March 2019, the research group of Waking the Feminists Northern Ireland (WTFNI) undertook a survey of the gender breakdown within eight Arts Council of Northern Ireland core funded theatre companies during the time period of 2014 – 2019. Their aim was to collect data on the number of female theatre practitioners working and the types of roles they had within these companies. In conversation with Ali FitzGibbon, Maggie Cronin discussed the emergence of Waking the Feminists NI. This Northern movement emerged from the grassroots campaign, Waking the Feminists, started in 2015 as a call for equality for women across the Irish theatre sector. Maggie presented the approach and journey of the collaborative research and share insights from their findings.
This was a survey undertaken by the research group of Waking the Feminists NI, which investigated the gender breakdown within eight theatre companies in receipt of Annual Funding Programme, administered by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. The eight “core funded” theatres were: Aisling Ghear, Big Telly, Cahoots, Kabosh, The Lyric, Prime Cut, Replay and Tinderbox. Data was gathered on productions taking place during the five-year period between 2014 – 2019.
The Headcount survey employed a methodology similar to the original Waking the Feminists Gender Counts report, which surveyed ten publicly funded theatre companies and festivals within the Republic of Ireland. In addition to gathering data on the seven key creative roles of Author, Director, Lighting, Set, Sound & Costume Designers and Cast, we also added data on one production role: Stage Management. It is hoped that this will the first step towards wider research into gender and other inequalities within Northern Ireland’s Performing Arts industries. We also hope that it will encourage further research and increased dialogue between academics, individual theatre practitioners and institutions, funding and advocacy bodies.
Read the report here.
