{"id":464658,"date":"2026-03-08T18:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464658\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T18:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:34:12","slug":"uks-performing-arts-industry-inhospitable-to-parents-research-warns-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464658\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s performing arts industry \u2018inhospitable to parents\u2019, research warns | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

The performing arts industry in the UK is \u201cinhospitable to parents\u201d and falling far behind other industries in supporting women who have children, according to research.<\/p>\n

The report, titled \u201cthe Motherhood penalty\u201d, criticises the industry for failing to consider how it might adapt to better accommodate parents, with the result that many, in particular women, drop out.<\/p>\n

Its author, Jennifer Tuckett, a playwright, said: \u201cCaring responsibilities were one of the major issues affecting women\u2019s careers in the arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were shocked to find problems like schedules being sent out the night before and the impact this has on parents, and we would urge both arts organisations and policymakers to look at new models which support both women and men to achieve success in the workplace and at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor Gemma Arterton<\/a>, who was involved in the research, said \u201clong working hours, a lack of flexibility and the need to travel without there being support in place\u201d were all familiar issues for women and mothers in the industry.<\/p>\n

Potential solutions included initial meetings to discuss needs, schedules being sent out earlier, greater flexibility, and targeted projects to help parents return to the workplace, Tuckett added.<\/p>\n

The report, which is the outcome of a Women in Theatre<\/a> research project supported by Equity and the Writers\u2019 Guild of Great Britain among others, drew on focus groups and questionnaires of 10 senior industry professionals, all of whom felt there was a need for the arts to improve how they support mothers and parents.<\/p>\n

It was intended to identify the problems and form the basis for further research under the umbrella of two new organisations, Women in Arts and Women in Theatre, which will also run mentoring programmes and networking events.<\/p>\n

An Arts Council England spokesperson said it had been building on the work through the establishment last July of a task and finish group to address the needs of women across the cultural sector, including glass ceilings, harassment and caring responsibilities.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe want to champion good practice and identify tools and interventions that support women at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women involved in the research highlighted a culture of \u201clong and late working hours\u201d and working in the night-time economy as a barrier, and felt there was a shortage of female creative directors and editors. Some believed they had been offered less work by contacts, while others said their careers had suffered because they no longer had the time and energy for schmoozing and self-promotion.<\/p>\n

One woman said she had found it \u201charder and harder to get in the room\u201d for castings after having a child, with the result that her CV \u201chas gaps that make me undesirable and now I\u2019ve dropped of those lists\u201d, because \u201cthe industry works off the last job you did\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another woman said the arts were \u201cway behind other industries\u201d and \u201ctrapped in systems of doing things that haven\u2019t been considered, and are done that way because that\u2019s just how it has always been\u201d, including schedules only being sent out at the last minute and no budget for job shares despite these being commonplace for child actors on stage.<\/p>\n

One participant said that on a West End<\/a> show she worked on there was no flexibility to change rehearsal start times from 10am to 10.30 to enable parents who lived further away to drop off their children at school.<\/p>\n

Another said: \u201cTours are out for most mums and a lot of women can\u2019t sign up to eight shows a week.\u201d There is often an expectation that \u201ceverything will be dropped to accommodate an emergency\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n

Arterton, who has starred in Quantum of Solace and St Trinian\u2019s, said: \u201cMotherhood has deepened my instincts and strengthened me as an artist. It sharpens your intuition, expands your emotional range, and gives you a profound understanding of care, collaboration, and resilience. Creative projects are richer, more thoughtful, and more impactful when mothers are part of shaping them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve witnessed many incredible women fight to combine motherhood and working in the arts in terms of issues like long working hours, a lack of flexibility and the need to travel without there being support in place for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want women and mothers to sustain long, thriving careers in the creative industries, we need informed action, structural support, and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The performing arts industry in the UK is \u201cinhospitable to parents\u201d and falling far behind other industries in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-464658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}