Where are all the vaginas?

I was sat on a zoom recently and each little square box was filled with the face of a man. I would like to state I am happy in the presence of men, I love and am married to one. But in this example I am pitching a TV show. Pitching it to two men from a very high profile production company. However, the show being pitched is about a successful woman in her sixties receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis and how she navigates it, her job and family. The show itself, currently only the pilot written, is beautiful, comedic and well timed. But it is written by a dude, the two other producers are dudes and now we are pitching it to two dudes. The ideas flowed, the conversation was fun and easy but the gaping hole was that we are wanting to create a show revolving around a woman and I am the only female creative.

The conversation continued to flow, the writer did an excellent pitch. Everyone felt pretty jazzed about how the show would move forward, the arc of season two and three. The producer we were pitching to asked "What would you want in a team for this show?" and I immediately blurted out "Women! We need more vaginas!" Being with a comedy driven production company meant there wasn't a stale pause or awkward shuffle, instead everyone went quite quiet. I had addressed the over inflated balloon in the room and everyone saw its potential to pop.

This, of course, is not the first time I have had this experience. I attend daily zooms and daily meetings where probably 1 in 30 have another female present. Predominantly just one other female. I've had sexist slurs thrown my way, I was once confused for being a hooker because I turned up to a meeting with apparently too much make up on (this story will be told in full don't worry.)

I am not saying we should burn all the men at the stake. As I said. I love a man, have children with him and work with him. I just think in order to create more equality, to raise the voice of women and their experience in this world we MUST have more female creatives. So in conclusion I am here to fight the good fight, to find the women, and bring them into the fold. Let's create projects that harness the human experience but do it fairly, equally and brilliantly.