BIZ STUDY: WOMEN FACE GENDER DISCRIMINATION

Women are overworked and underpaid, according to the inaugural Women in the Mix study conducted by The Recording Academy, Arizona State University and the Berklee College of Music Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship.

More than 1,600 people working in the industry responded to the survey, which found that:

Music creators and performers see the lowest income and highest dissatisfaction with their career progress. Approximately 57% of creators felt they should be further along in their career, compared to those working in music education (48.5%), event/tour production and management/promotion (41.7%), business (37.4%) and music media and technology (32.9%). Of the respondents who identified as creators and performers, 48.6% said they made less than $40k per year.

Discrimination is prevalent: 84% of respondents had faced discrimination; 77% felt they had been treated differently in the music industry because of their gender; and more than 56% believed their gender had affected their employment in the industry.

57% have two or more jobs; 24% are working 40-51 hours per week; 36% are making less than $40k per year and almost half feel they should be further along in their careers.

Roughly one of every two respondents said they chose not to have children or had fewer children than they wanted because of their careers. People who make more than $100k per year had a 27% likelihood of having children, which fell to 15% for those making less than $40,000 per year.

Gender-expansive people were less satisfied than respondents who identified as women by a 16% margin. They were twice as likely to make less than $40k per year and felt less comfortable in their workplace by a margin of almost 18%.

93% of respondents felt mentoring had contributed to their career.

78% reported feeling satisfied, with more than 80% in career categories that seem to face the most obstacles, such as freelancers, creators and performers. More than half of the respondents said that their pathway into their careers was through their love and passion for music.

40% were members of advocacy organizations, and roughly 20% mentioned advocacy in their recommendations to help improve the climate for women and gender-expansive people.

"The Women in the Mix study is a groundbreaking account of the realities of decisions that we as women working in music are publicly and privately making each day,” said Recording Academy Co-President Valeisha Butterfield Jones (pictured). “By centering this study around active listening, learning and building solutions, we've armed the industry with valuable data about the barriers affecting women in music and how we can together take a stand.”

Based on the data collected, the Academy, ASU and BerkleeICE made multiple recommendations for the music industry, including:

Recruitment Pledges: By getting the commitment of those who hire to recruit diverse candidate for their positions, we address access to opportunities, intentional diversity and hiring efforts and the negative effects of gatekeeper culture.

Creating paid internship opportunities: Since internships are often unpaid, they are a barrier to those who don't have access to resources that would otherwise allow them to work for free. By creating paid internship opportunities, we address access to resources, opportunities, networking and work/life balance.

Grants: By building a more robust grant and support infrastructure in both the private and public sectors, we address access to resources, access to opportunities and work/life balance.

Mentorship Initiatives: By creating pathways for women and gender-expansive people to access quality mentorship and mentors, we address access to mentors, which we found to have a profoundly positive effect on women and gender-expansive peoples' careers.

Soft-Skills Development: Mentorship and networking are both largely built upon a person's interpersonal skill set, as well as their ability to negotiate and advocate for themselves. By bolstering soft-skill development, we address people's access to resources, access to opportunities, access to mentors and networking acumen.

Additional Paid Days Off: With burnout a significant challenge according to respondents, giving employees additional and/or mandatory days off would improve work/life balance.

Supporting Advocacy Groups and Initiatives: By raising funds for and supporting groups on the front lines of advocacy work in the industry, we address access to resources, opportunities, networking and intentional diversity efforts.

The full report, including all findings and methodology, can be found here.