To all my fellow women: the experts have spoken; we, as an entire gender, are just not funny.

Feminism has, thankfully, been making a lot more impact recently. With campaigns like Free the Nipple and HeForShe, women all over the world are beginning to finally gain the respect and equality they deserve. One place that is still male dominated is the world of comedy.

Comedians such as Adam Carolla, Jerry Lewis, and Christopher Hitchens have all made the same comments about women: “women aren’t funny.”

My immediate reaction is “what the f***? Have you never watched 30 Rock or Parks and Rec?” Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are two of the funniest women to have graced the planet, but none the less, these male comedians continue to make jabs at women in comedy, simply because of their gender.

In 1981 there were a whopping 11 stand up headlining female comedians and in 2013 the number had somehow decreased to 10. In a 32 year period, and a period of feminist advancement none the less, one might expect an increase in these numbers, and yet, the complete opposite happens.

So while I, as a woman, want to say that the opinions of these men do not matter, their beliefs are influencing the way women in comedy are treated.

In Bonnie McFarlane’s documentary “Women Aren’t Funny” she cites interviews with comedy club managers from some of the most famous clubs in the U.S. and not shockingly, all of them are men.

The stereotype that has been created that women are less funny than men directly affects how many women can get involved in comedy. Women who are looking to start entering the world of stand-up comedy are facing these managers to try and get spots to perform and the managers are directly saying that the audience for women comics is just smaller in general.

McFarlane interviewed Vinnie Brand, manager for Stress Factory Comedy Club, who said “If a room is 75% filled when we book a female comic, our first thought is ‘would it be 100% if it was a guy?’”

This is the sort of thinking that creates a lack of representation of women in comedy clubs.

Caroline’s on Broadway is one of the most famous comedy clubs in NYC – Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Crystal, Tim Allen, and Rosie O'Donnell have all performed there. Everyone who gets on that stage is a comic, but there’s a hierarchy none the less. MC’s are the lowest level, then mid-level, and then finally the headliners. In data collected from 2011-2014 at Caroline’s, it was found that a measly 8.3% of headliners, 14.3% mid-levels, and 21.3% of MC’s were women.

While this is only one of many comedy clubs in New York City alone, it’s a representation of what is going on across the country.

Many female comics, including Tina Fey, have responded to these claims of women’s dullness by simply saying “well who cares what they think?” And while this is a perfectly fine response for some women, it ignores the issues for the rest of the gender. Tiny Fey, Kristen Wiig, and Amy Poehler shouldn’t care what some angry old man thinks of their comedy, they know they’re golden.

But by just blowing off the things that these men are saying is ignoring not only women in general, who have to deal with people telling them they’re not comically talented, but the artists who are trying to break in the comedy scene and are being rejected simply because of their gender.

So it’s time to stop just saying we don’t care what they think, we do, because the next Sarah Silverman could be being kept from the world because of this stereotype.