Women in Music: What Has Changed and What Needs to Change

By Laurine Payet, Music Journalist

This week we marked International Women’s Day. It celebrates the long history of women getting the rights they have today, but also it is also a day where we have to remember that equality has still not been reached in a lot of areas. More than politically, women also suffer from discrimination on a daily basis as well as professionally. While it pretends to be a liberal field, the creative industry is not better than other ones. Last year we took a look at the place of women within the music industry but even since then we have seen changes in what structures exist to help women in music.

Although we have seen the music and creative industries improve over the past months and years, it is far from being ideal. Some big festivals such as Reading & Leeds or the Isle of Wight still show a highly male-dominated line-up. However, we have also seen highly influential festivals like Glastonbury – which announced its line-up a few days ago – feature parity in the artists invited without making a big deal out of it. It is very frequent that effort involving inclusivity is also paired with the marketing aspect of it. The situation then opens the door for a debate; is it ethical to use such an important social cause for one’s own capitalization of their business, or should we just be happy that it makes things change anyway? Either way, improvement is on its way.

On top of better line-ups, projects aiming at inclusivity blossom worldwide. France has for example seen the first edition of “Les femmes s’en mêlent”, only featuring female artists. The Me Too movement led to the start of MusicToo, a big scale non-profit that offered a place for victims of sexism and sexual harassment in the music scene to talk. MusicToo showed the French public how twisted and male-led the industry was, on the artistic side as well as the business side. However, while a lot of men were pointed out to be unsafe, there has not been as many broken careers or change as excepted. Unless the teams and fans start believing the victims and counting them accountable for their acts, the music scene will stay unsafe for a lot of women.

On the bright side, a good number of grants to help the careers of women in music have seen the light of day in the past few years. UK’s leading funder of new music and talent PRS Foundation started their ‘Women Make Music’ grant. Supporting women, trans and non-binary songwriters and composers of all genres and backgrounds, its aim is not solely to help to fund. PRS Foundation wishes to also raise awareness of the gender gap, increase the profile of their artists and break down assumptions and stereotypes about women within the industry by pushing new role models for future generations.

But what is the stigma that we all need to break down? The list is long. Women are likely to be put into cases when saying they are a musician. We only consider women to be singers and not instrument players. The cliché of women-only playing pop is also still very prominent, the same way black people are always put into the ‘urban music’ box. It makes it even more difficult for women of color to find their place in the industry, especially when their scene is not what people expect from them. It is then important to have role models, such as the POC rock duo Nova Twins, setting an example for future generations of women rockers.

One other problem women are still facing is being groomed from a young age. They are often brought into an industry where they’ll be over-sexualised while still underage, to sell more and profit the men around them. A lot of them get stuck in contracts where labels will own their music for years, sometimes forever. We have the example of Taylor Swift, as well as Britney Spears. Too often women are tricked into multiple albums contracts where they have to work with the creative pressure of their teams. It has also been a recurring case in which women have bounded to work with specific producers they don’t choose, sometimes abusers. This was the case of Ke$ha and Kim Petras for example, working with Dr Luke who was accused of emotional distress, gender-based hate crimes and employment discrimination by Ke$ha.

Last week happened the Billboard’s Women in Music 2022 Awards, putting women in the spotlight. However, it is unfortunate that the event was not talked about the same way any others are. The changes happen but are still small. You might ask what can we do, as listeners, to help create a much more equal place for women in music. It is about stopping idealizing men and being more curious, about going out of our way and listening to new artists we might have maybe not heard of. Knowing that great rock is not just men and great pop is not just women. Knowing that women are not only on the mic. Knowing that women can write their own songs, and for others too. We have to support and uplift women musicians, whilst also putting a stop to constantly competing women against one another.

To mark International Women’s Rights Day, myGwork has put together a playlist of our favorite LGBTQ+ women in music.