Arts Council taskforce

In 2025 Arts Council England agreed to launch a year long taskforce to investigate discrimination against women in the arts as a result of our 5 year Women in Theatre research project, which was led by Jennifer Tuckett and run in partnership with The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Equity, WOW, Sphinx, the Women in Theatre Lab, Black Womxn in Theatre, ERA 50:50 and other partners.

This was achieved after 5 years of meetings with Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England, and other senior directors at ACE, and is the first time ACE has agreed to take action in the 5 years of the research project (and longer). The project was begun after ACE didn’t include women alongside other under-represented groups in its 10 year strategy document.

We are delighted the taskforce will spend the next year gathering evidence and meeting with women across the arts. ACE has committed to laying out tangible outcomes at the end of the year.

Women in Theatre and Women in the Arts are being founded to reflect the across arts forms focus of the taskforce and to foster collaboration in providing support and tackling issues for women in the arts as well as providing information and research to the taskforce.