Women in UK arts feel they do not have equal opportunities for roles, says report | Discrimination at work

Women working in the arts believe they do not have equal opportunities for roles, especially as they get older, according to a report saying that the industry is fixated with “young and emerging” talent.

Nearly all (95%) women working in the arts thought gender inequality persisted, while three-quarters (75%) reported experiencing unconscious bias or sexism, according to a survey of 76 arts professionals. More than two-thirds (69%) felt that age negatively affected their career success – a figure that rose to 100% among those working in artistic rather than managerial roles.

The research said that gender discrimination and ageism were being exacerbated by the use of AI in hiring, which can penalise women for taking career breaks for caring responsibilities, or reinforce historical biases.

Many performers highlighted the additional pressure on women to look young relative to men. “Often younger actresses are cast to play opposite men who are older for parts that are supposed to be the same age,” said one actor.

One participant said that casting opportunities “drop off at 39”, while another female actor said: “There are twice as many roles for my male colleagues as there are for me. There are even fewer roles for actresses over 50.”

One respondent highlighted the obsession with words like “young and emerging” to describe talent. “There seems to be absolutely no celebration of experienced, seasoned, insightful, adult, et cetera. It’s always fresh. As if anything that isn’t fresh is mouldy,” she said.

Another said that writers’ schemes tended to favour young people, while many emerging artist initiatives were aimed at young, graduating artists rather than developing later-life-stage artists.

One person working in arts marketing said there was a prevalent idea that only young people truly understood the online world, while a writer felt that the stories of older women were seldom commissioned.

The theatre and TV actor Maureen Beattie, who starred in Casualty and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, said: “So, we have proof at last that age discrimination is one of the major issues women face in the entertainment industry. Are we surprised? I’m certainly not. I’m one of the lucky ones who have slipped through this particular net and at the ripe old age of 72 have just come back from playing Lear in Pitlochry.

“We need far more of these great big meaty roles for women so that the current waste of the great talent and life knowledge and technical skill older women bring to the table doesn’t go on disappearing into the night.”

Dr Jennifer Tuckett, the chief executive of the support group Women in the Arts, who authored the report, said: “The findings regarding age discrimination against older women in the arts, and the potential for AI to increase issues for older women in the arts, are particularly worrying.

“Researchers are just starting to look at this area of AI and it is urgent we investigate this issue more – research has shown older women stand to be disadvantaged during any recruitment processes which use AI.”

The findings are from a survey undertaken as part of a five-year research project by Women in the Arts, run in partnership with the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Equity, WOW, Sphinx Theatre, ERA 50:50 and the Women in Theatre Lab. It is funded by Arts Council England and intended to feed into a taskforce addressing the needs of women in the cultural sector.

An Arts Council England spokesperson said the group would “consider the challenges women face around issues such as glass ceilings, harassment and caring responsibilities”, with a view to identifying good practice and interventions that support women at work.

The report called for more targeted work to address gender discrimination, including more funding to address the problem, representation targets – potentially mirroring those in Australia, where these are required in funding applications – and leadership programmes, as well as algorithmic audits to minimise bias.

The research will also be handed to ministers on 12 October as part of a campaign to establish an all-party parliamentary group on women in the arts.