International Women Stage Directors

Australia

Australia Laura Ginters Women performed in theatre in Australia from its earliest days as a penal colony in the late eighteenth century, and by the 1840s several were running their own companies and producing plays. Despite their early and continuing participation as actors, managers, directors, and playwrights, women remain underrepresented in Australian theatre. This is especially the case for women directors, and even more so in mainstream theatre. Women’s Rights: Historical Context Feminism in Australia has largely followed the model of other western nations: a first wave of feminism in the late nineteenth century was mainly concerned with suffrage , and the vote was seen as symbolic of the self-determination that women sought in all areas of their lives. In 1893 Australia’s neighbor, New Zealand, was the first country in the world to grant women the vote, and the state of South Australia followed in 1895. The federation of the individual states into the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 marked the beginning of a democratic and egalitarian modern nation, and in 1902 federal voting rights were given to Australian women, though Indigenous women and men did not receive the vote until 1962.1 A second wave of feminism developed from the 1960s, focusing on legal and economic equality, as well reproductive and sexual freedom, and it saw many significant reforms. For example, the ban on married women in the public service was lifted in 1966, and the principle of “equal pay for work of equal value” was accepted by the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in 1969. This paved the way for other changes: by 1984 the federal Sex Discrimination Act had made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex, marital status, or pregnancy, and this was supported by state-based antidiscrimination or equal opportunity legislation. Since 1999 the federal Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act has required organizations with more than one hundred people to establish a workplace program to remove the barriers that prevent women from entering and advancing in their organizations. A third wave in the 1990s might best be characterized by its plurality. As well as some sense of revolt against Second Wavers, issues of class, ethnicity, and sexuality also became part of the debate and nuanced what feminism might encompass. Postfeminism, antifeminism, postmodern feminism, power feminism—even DIY feminism—have all been used to describe the feminist thought and activity of this period. At the beginning of the twenty-first century women made up more than 50 percent of the population and more than half of university graduates. By 2011 women occupied a number of senior positions in Australia, including the top two governmental positions with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Governor General Quentin Bryce. Fewer than 30 percent of the Federal Parliament’s members were women, however. Well represented in the public service, with 57 percent of the jobs and 36 percent of senior executive positions, the situation was much less balanced in the private sector, where women held only 12 percent of senior executive positions and 9 percent of board directorships (Department of Foreign Affairs). Even in the face of generally accepted, legislatively supported principles of equal rights, and the peculiarly Australian belief in a “fair go,” there remain structural and cultural impediments that prevent women from equal access to, and participation in, all areas of public life; the theatre remains a pertinent example of this. Early Women Directors In 1840 Anne Clarke became the first woman to run an Australian theatre, the Royal Victoria Theatre, in Hobart. Her disciplined rehearsals, well-run theatre, and programs set new performance standards (Winter 650). She was the first of a number of nineteenth-century female actor-managers, including May Holt, Marian Willis, and Maggie Moore, the former wife of the famous entrepreneur and theatrical manager, J. C. Williamson. Kate Howarde, a well-known and popular actor, director, dramatist, and entrepreneur, founded the Kate Howarde Company in 1886 at age seventeen and toured widely in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. She enjoyed a forty-year career that included becoming the first Australian woman to direct a feature film—producing , directing, and starring in a film version of her hugely successful bush comedy Possum Paddock in 1920. The advent of the talkies dealt commercial theatre a severe blow from the late 1920s, and while J. C. Williamson’s company continued to present popular fare in the cities’ big theatres, the “serious” theatre took place in small theatres in the nation...