QUESTION:
How often do plays have more than 50% roles for one gender?

There were twice as many shows with more than 50% roles for men than shows with more than 50% roles for women. While male playwrights did write more than half of the plays with majority female casts, they wrote even more plays with majority male casts.

Another significant finding is that men are nearly as likely as women to direct majority female cast shows.  However, women get fewer opportunities to direct majority male cast shows. Nearly half of the majority female cast shows were produced at the lower non-union/union code level, while over two thirds of the majority male cast shows were produced at the higher union contract levels.

Women actors get more union contracts on majority female cast shows, and male actors get more union contracts on majority male cast shows, but given the significant difference in total number of shows, the number of female actors working on union contracts remains significantly lower than the number of male actors working on union contracts.

Table 10 – Shows with Majority Female Casts

TABLE 11 – Shows with Majority Male Casts 

Only 18% of shows had equal roles for women and men. Men were more than twice as likely to write these shows, and women and men directed them in roughly equal numbers.  Union women were slightly less likely than union men to be employed on these shows, and non-union women were slightly more likely than non-union men to be employed.

TABLE 12 – Shows with Equal Number of Male and Female Cast Members