Grrrr. In the US the role has historically been performed by both men and women.^[1] In the UK it has historically largely been performed by women, and Australia followed the UK.

There were a number of reasons for this, mostly good (e.g. the requirement for shorthand), some bad (e.g. the somewhat male-dominated^[2] nature of much of the industry), but all generally no longer relevant.^[3]

So no, it’s not a “girl’s job.” And incidentally, I wouldn’t recommend referring to any female Script Supervisors as Script Girls either.

1. Sam Peckinpah was a Script Supervisor at one point, and I’d say it’s a safe bet no-one ever risked telling him it was a girl’s job. Which might have been a nice irony. [↩︎]
2. Okay, sexist. [↩︎]
3. Although some surprising attitudes do unfortunately linger on. [↩︎]