In a 2013 article for The Atlantic, reporter Ashley Fetters investigated wild gender disparity among magicians. The stats she found on the subject were scant, but estimates were that only 3–8 percent of professional magicians in the U.S. were women. Explanations for the small number of women performing magic ran the gamut from sexism to small hands being ill-suited to card tricks to, well… that whole burning witches at the stake thing kind of setting a bad precedent for lady conjurers.
Slowly but surely, more female magicians are stepping into the spotlight.
This Saturday, the Women Magicians Association will present a showcase of some of their top talent. Performers will include Kayla Drescher, Simone Turkington, Elizabeth Patricia and the WMA’s founder Angela Sanchez.
Sanchez launched the group along with co-founder Lituo Huang after she presented a thesis on the history of women in magic to the Academy of Magical Arts in 2014, according to a recent LA Weekly article. She and Huang noticed that there were numerous women in the audience for that talk, though they were usually more accustomed to being the only female in a room for a magic gathering. While all of the WMA’s members are magician members at the Magic Castle, only 7 percent of the Castle’s magician members are female.
The Women Magicians Association Magic Show takes place Saturday, October 1, from 8pm to 10pm at Book Show, 5503 North Figueroa St in Highland Park. Tickets are $10.
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