National Theatre: Indhu Rubasingham's appointment is overdue

But it’s 2023… shouldn’t this already be the norm? After all, women have been fighting for over 100 years for equal rights with men. Speaking on behalf of female Gen Z-ers, it’s disheartening to see just how many women are often excluded from public, senior roles.

The appointment of Rubasingham as the first female, and person of colour, as the National Theatre director is encouraging, and refreshing, particularly after six white males previously had the position. Anupama Chandrasekhar described it perfectly as “a groundbreaking appointment on so many levels”. But, we cannot rejoice just yet, as men still continue to dominate many leadership roles, with no females ever being appointed as Director General of the BBC, Governor of the Bank of England nor the Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite the position of the latter having been around for 800 years. In fact, disappointingly, when the position as Governor of the Bank of England became vacant, 21 of the 23 applicants were male. Doesn’t this suggest that prejudices against women in the financial world are so ingrained that women are even deterred from trying? It appears as though the outdated stereotype that women are ‘bad at maths’ still continues to persist.

This underrepresentation of women is also evident in Parliament, with only 3 out of 56 Prime Ministers being female. Even when they do manage to become PM, they are often attacked by the media because of their clothing eg Theresa May’s ‘kitten heels’ and other trivial matters, not on ability. I’m sure we all remember the infamous Daily Mail’s ‘Leg-sit’ headline too. King’s College London researched this, with Blair Williams writing that ‘Women politicians are often presented in the mainstream media as women first, politicians second’ and that news stories ‘analyse personal lives, appearances and gender’.

Quite often, sexism comes to knock women down in power, and they frustratingly aren’t taken seriously. Let’s hope this is the turning point, where inherent gender biases in many industries begin to become eradicated, and female applicants are assessed solely on their merit, rather than their gender. Indhu Rubasingham has led the way; it’s time for others to follow.

* Poppy McBeath is a student in Lancashire who writes regular pieces for nationalworld.com