SYNOPSIS ON Female Mind at Work in English Drama Submitted to: Symbiosis International University

The moment we think about great playwrights, who have achieved spectacular success in the history of English theatre, the names that come to our mind are William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Ibsen, etc. Similarly, when we think of their American counterparts, dramatists who have carved their niche in this genre, names like Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, etc. spontaneously come to our mind. On the international scene playwrights like Anton Chekhov, Moliere and Bernold Brecht have made an indelible mark in the history of international theatre as playwrights. However, when we think about women who have left their mark in this genre we really have to think hard. Fewer women have tried their hand at playwriting. When one goes through the endless list of male dramatists, one wonders where the female playwrights are. Is drama a male bastion? Is it the sole prerogative of men? Or is it that women lack the artistic talent or skills that drama demands. It is true that in the long range of literature, women have been less successful with plays than other literary forms. There have been prolific women poets like Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Browning, women writers like Jane Austen, The Bronte sisters, Virginia Woolf, etc but there is a dearth of women playwrights. Why such glaring difference and why such unequal circumstances should persist is a topic about which many female playwrights have long opined. My study proposes to find out why very few women have experimented with this genre