I have to say, I never buy the "lack of candidates, not discrimination" explanation of these phenomena. Not saying it's prejudice, but there is a problem of not getting past established pipelines. deadline.com/2018/11/late-n…
The problem is framed as places like Second City and The Groundlings not having a lot of women, but there were women writing comedy to be found, perhaps just not in the dominant pipelines. If you want more diverse voices, you have to seek them out.
When I was editing @mcsweeneys from 2003-09 (08?) we had dozens of brilliant female contributors like @WendyMolyneux and @swalks who have gone on to big things. We also had others who haven't, but easily could have if someone came looking for talent.
And no offense to the fellas, but the comedy on @mcsweeneys now under @crmonks is dominated by women. @huttopian, @honeystaysuper, @BrotiGupta, @WendiAarons, @KunkelTron @DevorahBlachor and many others. I don't know what all these people do, but if you need funny, they exist.
The difference is that @mcsweeneys had no pipeline for talent. When I was editing, I was a college instructor living in Virginia and South Carolina. @crmonks works from a dungeon outside Boston. All we had was the inbox, open to all, entirely egalitarian.
Except, twist! Even an open inbox isn't necessarily egalitarian. When I was editing, women were far less likely to submit pieces to @mcsweeneys, even though they had a much higher acceptance rate. The solution: encourage female submitters to send more, and pass the word.
The other thing is, I wasn't even in search of diversity. I wanted good, funny content when the site was not so prominent and the material was harder to come by. Our female contributors were simply an untapped well of necessary material. Over time, the momentum fed on itself.
It was actually quite simple. When I would pass on a promising, but not quite there piece, I would write a specific, sincere, and encouraging message. Many of those people subsequently became consistent contributors.
What bugs me about the "lack of candidates" explanation is that it excuses not looking past the standby pipelines. It also doesn't recognize that a more diverse group of writers is necessary for better product, particularly in comedy and humor.
"Lack of candidates" can be read that there weren't enough people who could perform up to the standards of the existing white dude majority, when the real problem was a failure to look past the existing white dude majority.
Moral of the story, if you need funny writers from diverse backgrounds, but aren't seeing them in the usual places, go to @mcsweeneys and see what those contributors are up to. mcsweeneys.net
