When I picture a stand-up comedian in my mind, it’s always a man. This is eerie, yet a sad truth of the comedy industry. Take a trip back to January 2017 when Amazon Prime Video hired 14 Indian comedians for an hour-long uncensored stand up special. It was the best news a comedy lover (like myself) could get. 14 of India's most hilarious comedians which included Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kenny Sebastian, Kanan Gill, Zakir Khan and more were present. There was only one catch. Not a single female comedian was on that list of those 14 comedians.

We are all familiar with the comedians mentioned above and also talk about how great their gig was. But I am pretty sure we do not talk about Aditi Mittal's gig or the time when Kaneez Surka or Urooj Ashfaq were damn funny. One of the reasons for women not doing stand-up could be that they are harshly judged by everyone on every basis, more heavily on their material, but also on their looks, appearance, mothering skills, sexual status... the list goes on.

Comedy has always been a male-dominated industry and it has only been a year or two that things are changing for good. Now there's considerable increase in the number of women venturing into this field who are either operating through various social media platforms or taking the stand-up comic route.

That’s why Amazon’s new comedy series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – which is about Miriam "Midge" Maisel, a sunny, energetic, sharp, Jewish girl who had her life mapped out for herself: go to college, find a husband, have kids, and throw the best Yom Kippur dinners in town. Soon enough, she finds herself exactly where she had hoped to be, living happily.

A woman of her time, Midge is a cheerleader wife to a man who dreams of a stand-up comedy career, but her perfect life is turned upside down when her husband suddenly leaves her for another woman. Completely unprepared, Midge is left with no choice but to re-evaluate what to do with her life. When she accidentally stumbles onto the stage at a comedy club, she soon discovers her own comedic skills and decides to use this newfound talent to help her rebuild a different life for herself.

The series will trace the trajectory of Midge's journey as she goes on to pursue a career in the male-dominated, stand-up comedy profession, and transforms from uptown housewife to East Village club performer.

Set in the 1950's the show highlights the tough life of a female stand-up comedian. Just like Miriam Maisel in early 1960s New York, many female comedians and comedy fans are still frustratingly waiting for a time when the female comedy performer is judged solely on her ability to make people laugh.

Therefore, there needs to be an equal number of women on comedy bills, as well as more female sketch shows and female-centred sitcoms commissioned by TV channels. Getting more female directors involved would also help make programmes relevant for the 50.8 percent of the population who aren’t male.

While there's still some time in for the ratio of men and women in the comedy industry to be equal, shows such as Marvellous Mrs. Maisel is highly encouraging for women pursuing this career.