Carly Miller
Professor Ricciardi
Senior Project Draft
04 May 2018
Gender Inequality:
Bridging the Gap Between Men and Women in the Music Industry
While music itself is seen as neither masculine nor feminine, those who create music are generally of one sex. Historically, men are more likely to become musicians, producers, composers, or record label owners than women. In today’s world, this is apparent even in terminology that is used colloquially. Sound engineers at concerts are strictly “sound guys,” talent scouts are “A&R men,” and male guitarists are “guitar gods.” While women are present, their experiences within the industry are much different than men, lacking equality from all angles; underrepresentation in history to being underrated by critics, audiences, and fellow musicians. Women are often shadowed by an industry that rewards and promotes male ego and arrogance and it’s about time it ends. [will be rephrasing]
My primary aim in this exploratory study is to find a solution to this: are females within the music industry subjected to sex discrimination on both a personal and an institutional level? Why is there equal representation across gender in entry-level positions, but the proportion of women in executive ranks decrease significantly? I try to answer these questions by discovering
the experiences from women who have made, or are attempting to make a career within the music industry. For that reason, I approach all females within the music business as women industry professionals and use research on sexism in the workplace that strengthen the results from this study. As we analyze how society constrains female’s choices and success rate within a male-dominated workplace, I then reveal how sexism plays a significant role in the lives of females within the music business.
When googling “sexism in the music industry,” it yielded 533,000 results in less than half a second. Almost all of the stories relate to female artists and from the start, when my research began for this study, I was overwhelmed with stories strictly from and about female artists. What I couldn’t seem to find were stories from women industry professionals — label heads, directors, managers, producers, etc.. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, sexism is defined as “the behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex.” While conducting interviews, many of the interviewees revealed that within the workplace, women are seen as emotional and that is it becomes difficult to share their thought process without this stigma hanging over their heads. One interviewee, who would like to remain anonymous, shared that honesty is the policy and transparency is key and those two things go hand and hand. She shared:
“Honesty is so critical especially as a woman in a predominantly male industry
because it’s really easy for people to write females off for any number of reasons
so anything you can do to put people on your side and build extra strength and have
assets that you can say, ‘hey all of the people trust me, or all of these people think
this positive thing about me or positive way about me’” (Miller Interview 1).
It’s important for young women to build a foundation behind them, especially in the beginning as they start from the bottom. This interviewee went on to explain transparency as being just as important because this is an opportunity for a female to share their progress so that nobody in the workplace feels as they’re going in a different direction. Sharing your insight in a constructive way and why one thinks the way they do in an non-emotional way is important because a lot of the time, transparency transcends from the idea female equals emotion, and when a woman gets past the idea that there’s always an emotional reason for something, giving a straightforward answer is much more powerful. “Instead of saying that your decision really moves you and is beautiful, which is something anyone can come up with, you need to share that this is why you are choosing this and here are the facts behind it” (Miller Interview 1). It has nothing to do with being a female or anything that could possibly connect to that; women in upper positions, whether a director, executive or label head, have to deal with giving the facts and explaining to their male counterparts that it’s not about crushing their creativity or bashing their dreams, it ends up being a legal thing, an ethical thing, or the moral thing.
When seeking a position within music, most job applications or contracts state that the company, where you are applying, ensures equal opportunities for women, yet a lot of the time they break that promise and these companies slip through the cracks. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act “gives the Equal Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, authority to sue in federal courts when it finds reasonable cause to believe that there has been employment discrimination” (USLegal). Being a woman in the industry is known to be really hard and women have to put in
double the hours, double the amount of work and double the dedication. In a Variety article, that explains why the music business needs to wake up and embrace gender diversity, showed that throughout a case study, performed by researching different record labels and gender disparity within the industry, revealed that “companies that employ women at all levels of their organization, from entry to boardroom, demonstrate tangible business benefits. A gender-rich organization consistently outperforms peers that are predominately run by men.” The work of the women who dedicate their lives to this industry becomes overshadowed by the accomplishments of those of males and this aids in young women shying away from fulfilling their dreams of a career within the industry. A survey conducted by a music taskforce found that women “account for more than 50% of entry level roles, but only 30% reach to executive positions” (The Lack of Women in the Music Industry). Professional roles within this study will include “Chief Executive Officers (CEO), Chief Operating Officers (COO), Vice Presidents and Directors” (Chron). While interviewing another woman professional, she shared that male counterparts will shy away from working with women because they find it to be easier to work with another male to omit the feelings of a woman. Her words include that “it’s an everyday battle and it’s not going to end until all of the department within a label are led by women and until all of the generations of men that grew up in the industry environment are no longer working” (Miller Interview 2). This is one of the many examples showcasing that having males exclude women from decisions within the workplace only hinders females from jumping to the ‘male side’ of the industry.
Well, what classifies as the ‘male side’ of the music industry? One factor is the social roles distributed within the popular music world, based on one’s gender. Some of the
expectations for women in music include being a “singer, back vocalist, fan, groupie, girlfriend, wife, mother and dancer” (Bayton). Meanwhile, the expectations of males are “instrumentalist, manager of a band, live sound engineer, technician (guitar tech, drum teach, etc.), roadie, lighting engineer, road manager, music press photographer, promoter or music press journalist” (Bayton). These social roles try to stand in the way from allowing young females to fulfill their dreams and oftentimes male psyche shadows women industry professionals from sharing their stories. It becomes difficult for young females to find women who can offer advice and guidance who aren’t the women who perform on a stage every night. One woman industry professional who is a Senior Vice President of Promotion, shared a piece of advice she would give any young woman who is in hopes of a career within the music industry. Her advice is: “Stop thinking you’ll get the same breaks as you male peers. You won’t” (The Most Powerful Female Executives). Even though female performing artists use their voice to start a revolution, oftentimes women industry professionals stray away from taking initiative in fear that once their personal stories of harassment arise, that it will give their male peers the satisfaction of trying to prove that women are just ‘too emotional’ for a predominantly male workplace.
One revolution that has taken place at the beginning of 2018 was #TimesUp which is in response to the #MeToo campaign that came from the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment epidemic. A well-known female performing artist spoke on behalf of the campaign and she went: “To those who would dare try and silence us, we offer you two words: time’s up. We say time’s up for pay inequality, discrimination or harassment of any kind, and the abuse of power” (Toofab). This campaign took over all media outlets and gave women industry professionals the
confidence to speak out without fear of being criticized. The following days, as women started to feel empowered, a statement by Neil Portnow, the president of the Recording Academy, was released and women quickly came out to share their thoughts on his statement. His statement read:
“It has to begin with…women who have the creativity in their hearts and souls,
who want to be musicians, who want to be engineers, producers, and want to be
part of the industry on the executive level… [They need] to step up because I
think they would be welcome. I don’t have personal experience of those kinds
of brick walls that you face but I think it’s upon us – us as an industry – to make
the welcome mat very obvious, breeding opportunities for all people who want to
be creative and paying it forward and creating that next generation of artists”
(Angermiller).
Being a male, who is in charge of such a powerful organization, quickly tried to retract his words, but it was too late. While it was primarily female artists who took to social media to share their thoughts on the matter, women industry professionals did just the same. Six female music executives released a letter to the Recording Academy’s board of trustees in response to Portnow’s statement by calling them “woefully out of touch with today’s music, the music business, and even more significantly, society” (complex.com). One of these female executives, who happens to be one of the only women who is the Chief Operating Officer of a top record label, is very well-known within the industry, especially since she can proudly say that her label has a 50/50 ratio of males to females employed. As she would like to remain anonymous for this
study, she happens to be a mentor to young females and reveals the harsh realities of working in music when interviewed about the industry. In an interview, after being asked to share advice to young executives who may have been inspired by her rise, her response was:
“you’re going to have to work very hard. We live in a day and age of
instant gratifications; everything is so available. I devoted my twenties
to working 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. I didn’t get here by chance.
You’re going to have to make serious choices if you want a career path
like mine. It’s not about just being smart and resourceful. You have to be
smart, resourceful and out-hustle everyone” (MusicBusinessWorldwide).
This executive is sure to be truthful with the realities, whether good or bad, of the industry. She is also a feminist and stands by the importance of empowering women and always giving females credit where it fits best. In 2016, artist MILCK released ‘Quiet,’ a women’s empowerment anthem, and this female took time to send an email to her colleagues. She wrote:
“When artists use their gifts to speak out against oppression and stand up
for social change, dignity and respect, the effect can be extraordinary. So
I’m grateful and extremely proud to be able to share this powerful song in
this all-important moment…I am also proud to be running a music company
full of strong women. But I know it’s not easy being a woman in the entertainment business. It hever has been, and we have to have each other’s backs as we
gain strength through our collective voice. This is not a time for quiet…it is a time to speak out” (Billboard Greenwald – [change for anonymous).
It’s crucial that women speak out and that their voice’s that have been silenced for so long are finally heard. A female producer, mentioned that within the thirty years of being in the business, she has been manhandled, grabbed, groped and violated in many ways, but hasn’t shared her story till now. The media is quick to write articles talking about female performing artists and their harassment cases, but women industry professionals are left in the dark. She said: “To tell you the truth, as bad as it is, it’s when my abilities come to question that I get pissed off. Defending my body can happen when I go to Walgreens, but when you dismiss my intellect or capacity to perform as a professional simply because I have boobs, that’s weird and you and I now have a situation” (Huckeba). Empowering women is essential in such a predominantly male industry and is essential to many women, because there is this discrepancy and this gender continuum and misunderstanding that women are not capable of competing in the workplace to the same capacity.
When interviewing a young female, who wants to not just have a job in the business, but a career, she hopes to work for a company that is ran by a woman. She has done internships at record labels who empower women and has done some that do not give women the opportunities to speak up. While asking about her experience at the record label who has empowered her as a young female, she stated:
“There’s definitely a lot to be said about working for other women and
having other women there and knowing that even though issues within the
industry exist, there’s also a bright light at the end of the tunnel and knowing
what being able to identify what value I can bring as a woman in the industry
and that it’s possible that I can be a leader or that I can be that kind of helpful
person to somebody” (Interview).
Hearing from both women industry amateurs to women industry professionals, has definitely paved the way to bridging the gap between men and women in the music business. At the end of the day, every woman industry professional brings an asset to the table that is irreplaceable and that’s what really counts. Men who say or think of women in a negative way simply because they are a women, need to start realizing that women are a force to be reckoned with. Women try to overlook negativity and turn it into something bright and that’s what makes them the most powerful.
This study provides contextual evidence on how sex discrimination within the music industry is exhibited on different levels of success. A woman, a professional or not, deserves to been seen and no longer be hidden behind a curtain. The research conducted thus far on women industry professionals is important for musicians, the music industry and any workplace where women are a minority. When the day approaches that women feel unrepressed by age, beauty, secuality, identity, or image, then we will known that sexism is no longer an issue. The road is long and difficult, but I have hopes that changes, no matter how big or how small, will come in the future. I end this study on a final note about the importance of women in music: women are stronger than any man will ever be. They will continue to stand tall and will no longer be scared to use their voices, especially in instances like these when they have the opportunity too.