Women Pioneers

Abstract

For most of the history of patriarchal culture, ownership of property, the public arena, written language and theatre itself have been exclusively, or almost exclusively, male. For centuries the theatrical achievements of women remained largely invisible. The few women whose achievements made them visible emerged from a host of invisible and forgotten women, who, one can only assume, included creative and productive artists and performers. The few women who have entered the annals of early theatre history were usually privileged in some way: by class, by their beauty, by their association with men of influence, or perhaps because their work manifested some similarities with the works in the canon. In other words, even among women, class, race, sexual and social contacts and conformity to patriarchal codes have created great differences. The performances and narratives of poor women, women of colour, lesbians, ‘unattractive’ women and innovative women, who may have experimented in forms suited to their own private world rather than those of the public patriarchal one, were not considered significant in the history of theatre by virtue of the dominant cultural codes.