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Every single thing that humans do is cultural. We are a product of the culture that we are raised in – but that’s not to discount the existence of free-will. This means that everything that we do, from what we eat, to the way we eat is all culturally defined. And there is more variation than you might initially think. The first time I experienced any amount of “culture shock” was a couple of hours after I landed in Romania.
Thinking my Romanian upbringing would have prepared me for anything, I was utterly taken aback when my well-meaning family members ordered pizza for my sister and I. The pizza had a whole fish on it, and everyone ate the pizza with a fork and knife. After spending over ten hours on a plane, and adding the jet-lag, I was actually shocked by this (literally) fishy pizza. My family found my shock amusing. To them, fish pizza is normal; and eating pizza with your hands, well that’s borderline barbaric.
The process of learning this “normal” is called socialization; which describes a variety of processes that can range from overt to so subtle you probably didn’t even notice it. An overt process would be something like a company handbook with a list of values and typically a page that you sign agreeing to act accordingly while on the clock. More subtle socialization could be in the form of negative repercussions and/or positive reinforcement. For example, I have developed the mouth of a sailor. As a complete coincidence (it wasn’t a coincidence), my cursing increased drastically when I started working as a stagehand. My cursing was positively received and therefore reinforced, while the use of what I like to call “SAT vocab words” was met with mostly confusion and a dash of resentment for being pretentious. That’s how I learned what sort of vernacular (that would be an example of a pretentious “SAT vocab word”) was “normal” for stagehands. It happened pretty quickly, and I didn’t really notice until my cursing started to bleed into my personal life.
When I show up on show site and am the only woman, that is normal for me and everyone in the room. In a different cultural context, this lack of a female presence would be very noticeable. However, we in the industry have been socialized into this normalcy. Male being the default and female being different, creates a situation in which I arrive on show site and I am the other. I feel this on a daily basis from comments about “you’re a young and competent tech, and a woman!” to dress codes and apparel not taking the possibility of women into account.
We need to actively socialize current and incoming industry members in a manner that includes more than just white men. Changing the whole culture of an industry will be a long and arduous process, but it will be well worth it. Studies have shown again and again that more diverse and inclusive workplaces are more productive. So if the ethical standpoint that women are human beings that deserve to be treated equally isn’t enough of an argument for you – there is an economic incentive as well.
As always, work hard, do your best, and make yourself proud.
Another great article by SoundGirls: An Entertainment Career: Staying Tough and Moving Sideways
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The mission of SoundGirls.org is to inspire and empower the next generation of women in audio. Our mission is to create a supportive community for women in audio and music production, providing the tools, knowledge, and support to further their careers. SoundGirls.Org was formed in 2013 by veteran live sound engineers Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato and operates under the Fiscal Sponsorship of The California Women’s Music Festival, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. In 2012, Karrie and Michelle participated in the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” panel at the AES Conference in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) and moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston. Terri brought together five women working in live and broadcast audio. The groundbreaking panel (which also included Jeri Palumbo, Claudia Engelhart and Deanne Franklin), provided young women and men a glimpse into life on the road, tips and advice, and a Q & A with the panelists. More importantly though, was how incredibly powerful the experience was for the panelists. We had all been in the business for 20 years or more, yet most of us had never met before that day and within minutes we bonded like long-lost sisters. We were struck by how similar our experiences, work ethics, and passions were and wondered why our paths had never crossed and how our careers would have been different had we been there to support each other through the years. Each of us are strong on our own, but together we were even stronger and a powerful force. We were empowered. Each of us had been asked hundreds of times in our careers: Are there other women doing sound? How did you get into sound? How would a young woman go about getting into sound? Through creating SoundGirls.Org, we hope to establish a place for women working in professional audio to come for support and advice, to share our success and failures, our joys and frustrations, and for empowerment and inspiration.
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