Required Reading

Abstract

Rebecca Burton informs us in the introductory paragraph that her report comes twenty-five years after the ratification of the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, thirty-six years after the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada and almost twenty-five years after the release of Rina Fraticelli’s germinal report, “The Status of Women in Canadian Theatre” (1982). After a quarter of a century, one might be tempted to question the necessity of yet another report on the status of women in theatre in Canada. Surely, the situation has changed for the better. Burton herself states, “Many people still argue that gender parity has been achieved in the Canadian theatre industry and that women currently enjoy the same opportunities as men” (95). Echoing that sentiment, a male colleague and fellow theatre artist made the comment to me, “Is there even a point to this? Haven’t the gals pretty much taken over????”