For years, some women have been fighting for greater equality in all areas of life, whether in the military, Silicon Valley, or on the big stage. Broadway in New York City has been on the front line on the fight for a long time. While the gender representation in theatres across the country is pretty much evenly split between men and women, the West End is something of an outlier. 

It turns out that Broadway isn’t as equal as many people imagine. While the majority of the audience is female, around 61 percent of the on-stage cast represents male characters, which some activists feel is too many. 

While nobody is suggesting that the split HAS to be fifty-fifty, it does seem strange that Broadway would be so different from the rest of the country. Only 32 percent of characters depicted on stage are actually women.. To make matters even more confusion, New York is supposed to be the equality capital of America, with a preponderance of liberal thinking in the city. 

Getting to the bottom of this issue isn’t going to be easy. But to make matters a little more tractable, we’ve included an infographic covering the critical data about women’s role in theatre below. As you’ll see, it’s not just differences in the proportion of men and women on stage that’s significant, but also the gender of the writers and directors. Both are mostly male. 

Take a look below to find out more about the role of women in theatre: 


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