Lucy Beaumont has said she believes gender equality in comedy has regressed by “15 years”.
The comedian called out a number of comedy nights on social media over their male-dominated line-ups, screenshotting a number of posters to prove her point.
“Where’s all your women?” she asked in a now-deleted post on X/Twitter. “Basically you can search every city for comedy this month I reckon about 90 percent have either no women or woman on the bill.
“Some have one woman a month!! Back to 15 years ago and don’t get me started on tv panel shows! It’s become okay again.”
She continued: “Let’s just call ‘most’ of them what they really are – male panel shows that book a woman and male comedy clubs that tolerate women, the banter changes, the atmosphere becomes competitive and women don’t grow or shine or get equal employment.”
Let’s just call ‘most’ of them what they really are – male panel shows that book a woman and male comedy clubs that tolerate women, the banter changes, the atmosphere becomes competitive and women don’t grow or shine or get equal employment. pic.twitter.com/Pu8pw3uDJS
— Lucy Beaumont (@LucyABeaumont) September 10, 2024
Beaumont previously said in an appearance on The Comedian’s Comedian podcast last year that “predatory male behaviour” had held her back most in her comedy career.
“I’ve had quite a few incidences where if you were in any other workforce you would go to HR [Human Resources], but there isn’t one,” she revealed.
“I think it’s just everywhere and it’s not talked about enough. It upsets me when I hear about young female comics having the same experiences. I thought for a while it was the same five or six people – and now it’s not – I could name you 10 or 15, because of course people talk,’ she claimed.
She continued: “Comedy has the biggest gossips ever so everybody knows – or if you don’t know the ones I know yet then you will do soon. It attracts such interesting, passionate, raw, edgy, wounded people – but it also attracts predatory men who are really messed up and sexually have been repressed for years. And they get a bit of fame and display these behaviours.
“There’s been times when I’ve just wanted to go on Twitter and just let people know everyone that we talk about, but we’re not allowed to say.”
Beaumont was nominated in 2023 for a BAFTA TV award for Best Female Performance for her part in Meet The Richardsons. She also appeared on panel shows such as Have I Got News For You as well as comedy game show Taskmaster
In other news, Beaumont confirmed earlier this year that she had separated from comedian husband Jon Richardson after nine years of marriage.
In the statement in April, the couple said they had “jointly and amicably made the difficult decision to divorce and go our separate ways”.
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