Adrienne Quartly, 15 January 2017

A session called to ask if gender imbalance in the Sound Design, Sound Technician

role in theatre is, actually, a problem.

Does it matter that more men than women do your thing?

How can we inspire more women to join the ranks of the sound designers.

Thoughts:

Balancing work and family life is tricky in a non linear job with varied hours.

No clearly defined support for practitioners and their families.

Buildings are rapidly becoming aware of the need to cast diversely and the same with

the creative teams. Does positive discrimination ever lead to the dilemma of being

shortlisted because you're female. That's good, right?

Directors welcome a balanced room providing a mixed dynamic.

Traditionally the sound world has been very male, do we need mentoring for all

students raising awareness that working in sound is an exciting possibility for all .

Would it help to create a targeted women in sound social network, similar to the

women in stage entertainment network.

Can we get more women teaching tech in educational establishments.

Would having female only spaces help nurture creativity.

Having a collective could help get the message out.

What could the industry be doing to support more women in sound design.

Actions:

Look to the educational establishments to address why females choose less technical

subjects at this stage

Provide a social network of theatre sound women.

Provide mentoring schemes.

Create awareness of sound design being a job for anyone interested in theatre making

in this way.

Tags:

women, theatre makers, sound design, Social, Theatre Makers, Sound Design,

Women, social