Gender Tallies In the Wild — And Why They Matter
We’ve recently noticed that more folks are counting and sharing what they find — or perhaps it is that the media is taking more notice. Either way, this week we are highlighting some of the excellent efforts made by individuals and organizations who are using a simple count to make salient points about gender inequality and inclusion.
Shark Tank’s Bias
Angel investor Halle Tecco, part of the GenderAvenger family since its inception, has been tracking Shark Tank for a decade and shared her findings with The Hustle:
“Six out of 10 Shark Tank contestants were men, or all-male teams, while less than one-quarter were women.”
“When we look at the gender breakdown of successful contestants, 57% (284) were men, 27% (133) were women, and 16% (82) were mixed-gender teams — a fairly representative distribution of who makes it on the show to begin with.”
While women made more deals than men (60% vs. 53%), “female contestants ask for, and receive, much smaller deals than male contestants ($214k vs. $324k). They also sacrifice more equity (30% vs. 26%) and walk away with 23% smaller valuations.
Wisconsin Theater Is Failing Women
Last month in anticipation of the coming theater season, writer and playwright Gwen Rice took a look at who will get to tell the stories in southern Wisconsin’s prominent theaters. She found that “the works written by women account for just 28% of the plays we'll see on Wisconsin stages next season.”
Rice highlights the disparity by sharing that women are much more likely than men to patronize the theater: “According to The Broadway League, they are in the audience. In the 2017-18 Broadway season, 66% of the audience was female, along with 72% of touring Broadway shows. So statistically, women are supporting live theater performances, but they are not necessarily being supported in creating them.”
Back to Game of Thrones
While women played prominent leads in the series, how much did they actually speak? Well, it may surprise you, according to an article by the BBC. By season, women spoke 31% of the time at the most (season 7) and an abysmal 22% of the time at the least (season 8). Keep in mind that this analysis was automated and the margin of error is +/- 8%.
The Visual Arts
This article in The Guardian reveals some startling facts about women artists:
“The National Gallery in London only has 24 works by women out of some 2,300 paintings.”
“In 2014, just 34% of Australian art media articles featured or even mentioned female artists – and only 20% of art magazine covers. Indeed, the only area where there is gender parity is in administration and management positions.”
“The Cruthers Art Foundation in 2015 conducted a pilot study of professional female artists working from 1870 to 1914 in NSW titled Into the Light: Recovering Australia’s Lost Women Artists. They discovered 431 women. Yet the vast majority are not on the historical record.”
Billionaire Magazine’s Pithy Platitudes — By Men
This tweet by @emrazz pretty much says it all:
This is why counting — and the GA Tally — matters.
Each of these counts shows, in stark terms, the persistence of gender inequality. Sometimes it’s not so obvious — ahem, Game of Thrones — and that’s why tallies matter. You can’t argue with the data from simple tallies, and that's the immense power of the GA Tally: it allows you to tell the story of systemic power imbalances through the simplicity of a pie chart. Keep using the GA Tally and let us know what you are seeing!