International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day!

International Women’s Day first began on March 8th 1911. It celebrates the achievements of women and women’s equality. This year’s theme is ‘choose to challenge’. The ideology behind ‘choose to challenge’ is that a challenged world is an alert world. You may have heard the phrase, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’. Well, it’s still broke!

Women still face a lot of challenges in the music industry, including:

• Underrepresentation (as we've seen from many event lineups, as just one example)

• Being subject to greater scrutiny form the media

• Age discrimination

• Body shaming

The list goes on. 

From a recent study entitled Women in Music:

• 84% of women said they had been treated differently due to their gender

Taylor Swift once said in an awards acceptance speech: 

‘Some people will always have slight reservations about you: whether you deserve to be there, whether your male producer or co writer is the reason for your success, or whether it was a savvy record label. I saw that people love to explain away a woman's success in the music industry.’

Personally, I find it really inspiring to hear female artists like Taylor Swift being vocal about the challenges they face in the music industry. When people try to explain away your success it really sucks - especially when you’ve worked so hard to get to where you are.

From USC’s third annual music report of 2020:

• In 2019 22.5% of the top songs were made by female artists

• 14.4% of songwriters were female

• 5% of producers were female

I know from co-writing songs and working with many producers that there aren’t as many female producers or songwriters out there. Not so long ago, this job was seen as something that only a man could or should do. It’s great to see more female and non-binary artists breaking through into this sector.

Lizzo is another artist who I find particularly inspiring. She had been writing original songs for a long time before having her first hit single. She tweeted: 

‘8 years of touring, giving out free tix to my undersold shows, sleepless nights in my car, losing my dad & giving up on music, playing shows for free beer & food w/ -32$ in my bank account, constantly writing songs, hearing ‘no’ but always saying ‘yes’. Glad I never gave up.’

What a legend.

Here are some of my favourite tips from other inspirational women in music:

• ‘When you get an opportunity, seize it - and go the extra mile. Whether that's staying on a little bit later to lend a hand, thinking of a really good idea, or maybe you're bringing them a brand new artist that they've never heard of before. Make sure that you stand out and they can't easily forget you.’ 

  - Abby McCarthy (BBC Introducing and BBC Radio 1 DJ and presenter)

• ‘I would say stay headstrong when you can, but think about what success means for you and how you can get there. Don't be afraid to carve your own path. Then I'd say check out PRS Foundation. We have opportunities for artists at all stages in their career across all genres and our whole aim is to help artists get to a sustainable career position, and to provide the financial support to get there.” 

  - Maxie Gedge (PRS Foundation, Musician and Promoter)

• ‘It’s okay to make mistakes, as long as you don’t repeat them. It’s okay to mess up - just keep going’ 

  - Rhiannon Mair (Palm Bay Music)

• ‘Always be honest. Being straight up with people is always the better way forward.’ 

  - Jamie Foxy-Blair (Awesome Merchandise)

• ‘Stay in contact with people, network, be friendly’ 

  - Emma Edgar (Tour Manager)

• ‘Whatever it is that you wanna do, take step 1. Worry about step 10 later. Just go for it!’ 

  - Xylo Aria (Music Production for Women)

If you’re a woman in music: in an industry dominated by men, you should know that you are not alone. Your art matters and what you contribute to this industry (and this life experience!) matters. There may still be times that you have to fight and work harder than your male counterparts. It shouldn’t be like this, but things are getting better. There is still work to be done, but it's becoming a really exciting time to be a woman in music.

For help and support visit: www.helpmusicians.org.uk

To watch my International Women’s Day SPECIAL edition of Backstage Pass Podcast click here.