06-18-2019, 11:26 PM
https://www.theguardian.com/business/201...ting-teams
ITV’s head of comedy has said she will no longer commission any show with an all-male writing team, or one that has just a “token woman”.
Saskia Schuster took action after an audit of her shows revealed “an awful lot” of all-male teams and a “significant lack” of women in scripted commissions. She said for every five scripts sent to her by a man, she would receive just one by a woman.
“Too often the writing room is not sensitively run. It can be aggressive and slightly bullying,” Schuster told Diverse Festival on Monday, according to the BBC, where she featured in a panel discussion titled “why employing more women writers in comedy matters”.
After consulting writers, producers, agents and performers, Schuster, whose commissions include Benidorm and CelebAbility, said she changed her terms of commission and refused any offering written exclusively by men.
I'm never sure what to think here. On the one hand, there are plenty of talented female comedians out there, and if they're being denied opportunities that their male counterparts have no trouble attaining, then I believe that needs to change. On the other hand, I also believe that the people chosen for the writing team should be the best ones for the job, regardless of personal characteristics like gender - and this seems to stand in the way of that (at least, if the move is being touted as a permanent, rather than a temporary measure to address historic imbalances).
The other issue I have is, I'm worried that this will demean the work of female writers, because they'll be perceived (rightly or wrongly) as "the token woman", rather than being seen to be there on their own merits. However, ITV say they won't allow shows that just have 'a token women' - so, how do they intend to enforce that?
ITV’s head of comedy has said she will no longer commission any show with an all-male writing team, or one that has just a “token woman”.
Saskia Schuster took action after an audit of her shows revealed “an awful lot” of all-male teams and a “significant lack” of women in scripted commissions. She said for every five scripts sent to her by a man, she would receive just one by a woman.
“Too often the writing room is not sensitively run. It can be aggressive and slightly bullying,” Schuster told Diverse Festival on Monday, according to the BBC, where she featured in a panel discussion titled “why employing more women writers in comedy matters”.
After consulting writers, producers, agents and performers, Schuster, whose commissions include Benidorm and CelebAbility, said she changed her terms of commission and refused any offering written exclusively by men.
I'm never sure what to think here. On the one hand, there are plenty of talented female comedians out there, and if they're being denied opportunities that their male counterparts have no trouble attaining, then I believe that needs to change. On the other hand, I also believe that the people chosen for the writing team should be the best ones for the job, regardless of personal characteristics like gender - and this seems to stand in the way of that (at least, if the move is being touted as a permanent, rather than a temporary measure to address historic imbalances).
The other issue I have is, I'm worried that this will demean the work of female writers, because they'll be perceived (rightly or wrongly) as "the token woman", rather than being seen to be there on their own merits. However, ITV say they won't allow shows that just have 'a token women' - so, how do they intend to enforce that?
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