Social History Overview
This movement is about women seeking equal representation in the music industry. These women are seeking to gain equal representation in the industry as it is almost entirely dominated by men at the higher levels. For the purposes of this project I will be focusing specifically on the United States. Currently there are many activists and organizations working through informing and educating women on this issue. This is a currently still an issue in the United states to this day, and there are many hard-working individuals trying to make a difference. There are many studies and meta-analysis’s in the of this topic in the United States .Specifically, I found an interesting study covering the Gender & Race of songwriters and producers across 600 popular songs, written by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, & Dr. Katherine Pieper. The beginning of this article is filled with great info-graphics easily explaining the findings of this paper. Some of the findings of this paper are interesting but not surprising as they are what many people would expect out of this industry. One finding is that out of 1,239 top artists in 2017 83.2% were male, while only 16.2% were female. This statistic also carries over to songwriters as well where, 87.7% of top song writers were male. Another interesting finding form the article was that the awards given for these artists and songwriters were almost exclusively given to males as well. They found that between 2013-2018, 90.7% of Grammys given out were to male artists. While this number could just be representative of the high male proportion in the top charts, I believe that this represents an inequality within the music industry at the top level where men outnumber women almost four to one.
“Inclusion in the Recording Studio”
By: Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, & Dr. Katherine Pieper.
http://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inclusion-in-the-recording-studio.pdf
Advocates
Kristin Lieb
She started her career with many executive level marketing positions, and business development positions within the music industry. Some specific places that she worked being, Digital Music on Demand, Atomic Pop, & Newbury Comics Interactive. Through this work experience she noticed some of the ways this industry brands women and how they hold a disproportionate amount of positions as men in the industry. Kristin believes that the industry needs to change the way they brand women to the public and increase their representation in top positions within the field. Kristin is a middle aged, white woman, with a doctorate at Syracuse. She has a lot of relevant experience in the music industry as she worked in executive level marketing for many firms within said industry, so she knows many of their strategies and inequalities present.
Lara Baker
Lara is a middle-aged white woman who has been working in the music industry for fifteen plus years. She is interested in the topic of gender representation in the music industry because through her experience she saw how biased it was towards males. In 2018 and 2017 she was named in music week’s women in music roll of honor for the work she has done with this movement. Specifically, in her 2017 music week interview she said, “We need to start working on real systemic change”. She believes that with all the time spent in the music industry she has seen no real change to help women get on an equal playing field. One great event she hosted was the BBC Music Introducing Live, where she gathered a list of performers with a fifty-fifty gender split.
https://www.musicweek.com/brands/read/we-need-systemic-change-lara-baker-s-message-for-the-biz/076025
Organizations
Women in Music
Their mission is more diversity in the music industry, specifically their campaign is to reach equal representation within the industry. The mission statement on their website reads, “Women in Music is an organization with a mission to advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition. Our seminars, panels, showcases, achievement awards, and youth initiatives celebrate the female contribution to the music world and strengthens community ties.” This works by hosting educational & career building events for women attempting to go into said industry. They also offer a plethora of other services for women attempting to enter and are attempting to strengthen the community ties of women within this industry. This organization exists because of the statistics I listed in the paragraph above, women have historically been underrepresented in the music industry and this cause is trying to help even the playing field for this woman. In 2020 the organization is offering many programs to help, some of which include, a woman in music mentor-ship program, diversity & inclusion council, workplace initiative, and support for sexual harassment and assault.
How to think anthropologically about gender justice
If I had to pick one of the thinking anthropologically about gender concepts, I would choose the idea that gender is a relation of power to best describe what I have found within the research I’ve done. It seems like the power dynamic that many believe comes with the two genders is very present in the music industry. This could be one way to describe the reason women are underrepresented in the higher positions in these fields. Gender is the underlying problem within this issue, women are underrepresented, and men are over-represented in the field. Something that seems significant to me when reflecting on the course concepts we’ve learned thus far is the idea of how historically women have not held positions of power within the United States. Up until the 1930’s women usually stayed at home and did not have independent jobs away from the home life. I believe that women entering the workforce so late when compared to men always being huge part of it is one of the many reasons, we see this huge inequality today, although I still believe that there are many other reasons along with this one. Many women are not as capable as their counterparts due to this issue. I believe this is a difficult thing to change, as it’s a deeply rooted idea in many people heads in western culture. Through proper education and advocacy, I do think that this incorrect assumption about women could change for the better in the coming years. Through education and activism in the world I believe this inequality could eventually eliminated and men and women will be equals within this industry.