Women: We better get our own house in order

Today in the New York Times there is an article reporting research that when women versus men playwrights are evaluated, women playwrights suffer and their scripts are considered of less quality and have less potential for economic gain. Unfortunately, the shocking finding is that the people who feel this way are not the men. Men rate women and men playwrights exactly the same. The people who discriminate against women playwrights are women themselves. 

Ladies, we need to examine our own biases and prejudices.  We have to be very conscious of the fact that we may be evaluating other women more harshly then we should.  I think this comes from our upbringing, our own personal stereotypes and perhaps a little “queen bee” syndrome.  But whatever the cause we have to hold ourselves accountable.

To read the article, click here.  The methodology is very scientific; the economists behind the research at Princeton support it.  What they did is they took identical scripts and sent them to evaluators: playwrights, literary agents and managers.  In one case the script had the name Mary on it and the other Michael. There was no difference in the content and unfortunately it was the women managers, artistic directors and literary agents who negatively and overly criticized the women.  If you have any comments about or suggestions on how we can remedy this situation amongst ourselves I am all ears.

Renee

Partners and Social Media

Over the past couple of shows we discussed partners and social media. Here is an article  in the New York Times that talks about both.  There is a social media site named Partner Up that helps entrepreneurs partner with others.  The article also talks about Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.  Worth the read.

Renee