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Women in dance music still face barriers to the industry, as shown in a new report by The Jaguar Foundation, which has researched the current situation in the UK. Outlining that women only make less than 1% of radio play, the data looks at a timeline between 2020 – 2021 and looked at both ‘live’ and recorded music.
BBC Radio 1 DJ Jaguar Bingham is the woman behind the study and the founder of the organisation. They explain:
Our mission is to make electronic music a more equal place for the next generation of creatives and emerging artists. Through forward-thinking initiatives, we want to create a freeing, inclusive platform that inspires people from minority backgrounds to gain greater opportunities and feel represented throughout the music industry.
We are proud to release the findings from our debut report, Progressing Gender Representation In UK Dance Music, which sets out to provide both qualitative and quantitative data into gender balance in UK dance music, using research from a range of artists and industry executives.
Our report uncovers evidence supporting long-held beliefs about gender disparity in dance music – across the live industry, radio airplay, streaming platforms and in the gender balance of music organisation employees – as well as exploring a number of other discriminatory issues that female and non-binary people face.
Sadly, key findings from the report were unsurprising, and in step with previous studies across musical genres and other parts of the world. The Jaguar report found that when women collaborate as a featured vocalist on tracks with male producers, there is an increase in airplay, with 44% of dance music on radio and 37% of chart tracks fitting this brief. Although not mentioned in the study, there are often problems with the role of ‘featured vocalist’, including appropriate compensation, writing/performance credits, and the male editing of women’s voices to sound smaller and higher than they really are. Key findings in the report noted that music festival line ups were made up of 14% women or non-binary people in 2018, increasing to 28% in the last year, although these are predominantly women playing support sets, not headlining shows.
Jaguar expressed her frustration to Sky News, saying:
“You can’t be what you can’t see. And if you look at the line-ups and you’re seeing these headliners and majority of the line-up is men, you’re not going to see yourself represented.
And it’s the same as in hearing tracks on the radio or in streaming or in the charts [which are by non-male artists alone], which is 5% on the charts and 1% in radio, which is so small. As a radio presenter, that makes me very sad.
And if you don’t see yourself in that space, you’re not going to think, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll learn to make house music or get some decks and I’ll learn to DJ’. What we found in the report is that people don’t feel safe or visible or welcomed.”
Additionally, sexual abuse and assault is a key factor that makes existing and working untenable for many women when they do land gigs. Many women told Jaguar about keeping their drinks safe, being harassed while DJing, and one woman even had to stipulate on her rider that nobody would be able to have access behind her after so many instances of abuse.
Sadly, this is the reality for women in 2022, but Jaguar is determined to change this culture, and explains what we need going forward. In an effort to educate the clubs, their staff, and audiences alike, the authors of the report have created a template for a safety rider that performers can use when gigging. Jaguar explained to the BBC what the rider says, and hopes that male headliners will implement these also and show allyship:
“It says, ‘I won’t play on this line-up unless there’s another woman, person of colour or trans and non-binary person alongside me. If not, it’s within my rights to cancel the gig’.
If guys have these contracts too, it would really accelerate the thing that we’re trying to achieve here, which is diversity. It’s a really important step that we need to take.”
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Michelle is a musician and composer from the UK. She has performed across the UK and Europe and is passionate about arts education and opportunities for women and girls.
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