Happy International Women's Day!
Today, we celebrate the achievements of women in all fields of life, including music.
Women have contributed immensely to the music industry, breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations. From iconic singers to talented instrumentalists, women have made an indelible mark on music history.
Did you know just 21.6% of women are artists, 12.6% are songwriters, and 2.6% are producers? Yep. The dire statistics highlight the ongoing gender imbalance in the music industry, which is why it's crucial to recognise and support organisations that are working to promote gender equality and champion women in music.
Despite facing discrimination and inequality in the music industry, women have continued to excel and make their voices heard. We have highlighted some amazing female-led organisations that are doing the work to create a more equal music industry from behind the stage to in the producers seat.
Check them out.
Resister is a multi-award winning & women-owned full service music agency. The team specialise in music supervision, songwriting, and audio branding for all media. They are the very first music supervisions agency to create a dedicated home for female and gender minority composers, artists, producers and sound designers.
RESISTER, formerly known as 'Sister Music', has undergone a fresh rebranding and emerged as a passionate, purposeful, and progressive organisation. From its inception, RESISTER has been dedicated to promoting the voices of women and underrepresented groups, and has taken a strong stance against the lack of female and non-binary representation in the music media industry. Despite the name change, the company remains steadfast in its commitment to these values, and is now more determined than ever to amplify its message.
“WHEN WOMEN SUPPORT EACH OTHER, INCREDIBLE THINGS HAPPEN!” - Carla Marie Williams
The movement championing women in the creative industries, providing them with opportunities and platforms. Founded by multi-platinum songwriter Carla Marie Williams, GIRLS I RATE pushes for “equality, female representation and recognition in the creative industries”, by creating work opportunities, and honouring and empowering women.
Carla Marie Williams is a multi-platinum, A-list songwriter to a role-call of artists, including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Naughty Boy, Craig David and Sean Paul. Experiencing first hand the imbalance and inequality within a very male dominated music industry, Carla was compelled to create a movement that provides females with a voice.
They have built the #GIRARMY – a community of over 5,000 female creatives – and organise mentoring sessions, masterclasses and more. Advocates of Girls I Rate include Lily Allen, Nao, Alexandra Burke, Ms Banks, Etta Bond and Alicai Harley.
A London-based collective for women and trans and/or non-binary music producers and engineers.
Omnii was set up in 2016 by Francine Perry and Naomi Jackson as a project within Goldsmiths Music Studios. Here they began delivering workshops in studio engineering to women, non-binary and trans students at the University. The success and popularity of these workshops proved the importance and necessity of their existence; after their workshops participants felt more confident in the studio, and were more likely to use the facilities.
Omnii have now expanded - running workshops in live sound engineering across the country, as well as hosting guest speakers for workshops in a range of different professional audio engineering fields including Mandy Parnell, Marta Salogni, Steph Marziano, Katie Tavini, and Slow Shudder.
Omnii’s mission is to “challenge and redefine expectations of audio production environments”, and to “educate and inspire women, non-binary and trans sound enthusiasts”.
The organisation that champions female jazz musicians, showcasing the music and stories of women, to inspire the next generation of talent. Women have always played an integral role in shaping the history of Jazz, yet only 5% of all jazz instrumentalists in the UK are female - Women In Jazz want that to change.
Through live shows, workshops masterclasses and more, they nurture women in jazz. Their community is made up of 6,000 Artists; from singer-songwriters to producers, instrumentalists and composers. The Women in Jazz team have access to the top female artists of today; from Brit-award winning artist Celeste, to emerging drummer and composer Jas Kayser.
They’ve produced radio shows for Sky TV, Jazz FM and British Airways, run panel discussions at Love Supreme Festival, programmed live events at Ronnie Scotts, and launched their own YouTube show ‘Uncovered’, which spotlights the most exciting female jazz artists from across the UK.
Would you like to find out more? Visit their website here.
Connecting, recognising and empowering women, trans and non binary professionals, working backstage in the creative industries. In a predominantly male dominated industry it is often a battle for women to prove that they are equal. There is a need for females working in the music industry to unite and push for a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Petok Productions are making waves, positively changing the way women, particularly women of colour are being perceived backstage.
Petok Production’s mission is to achieve 50/50 gender equality backstage. As well as, spotlighting the various careers available to work in backstage, creating safer environments for marginalised genders working backstage and connecting women working backstage on a global scale.
Founder of Petok Productions is Pembe Tokluhan. A member here at The Halley and part of our Launchpad programme. A young but experienced and knowledgeable stage manager, sound engineer, event producer and DJ. Over the years she has worked in some of the UK’s most well known festivals such as 51st State Festival, Happy Days Festival and Windrush Radiate Festival. Her previous partnerships include O2 Think Big, Stop The War and OXJAM. Passionate about making change, Pembe decided to use her connections and skills to start Petok Productions to help gain the recognition of women, trans and non binary people working backstage.
