Being a woman in music.
I have always been a woman in music but now I am also an older woman in music. Whilst I see my age as an advantage creatively and spiritually, getting older as a woman isn’t a great business move.
Recently I noticed a comment under one of my videos on YouTube. The viewer was praising my male collaborator for his songwriting, describing it as an example of his finest writing. Whilst this person was right, my collaborator is ‘magnificent’ he didn’t write that song, I did. Despite it being my voice on the song and the video featuring me alone, this person in that moment didn’t consider that the woman in this male / female pairing could have been responsible for the writing and composition of the song.** This is not untypical. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been asked after one of my shows, ‘who writes your songs?’.
Back in my early days I sang in cover and tribute bands. It was a busy time and I worked hard. I remember finding out that one of the bands were paying me less per gig than my seven male colleagues. When I went to the band manager about this, he said ‘well you’re just a backing singer and so you’re not singing all the way through every song’. This was of course utter bs. The trumpet player wouldn’t have played all the way through every song either. Are we being paid per note? No, I got less because I was the only woman.
Things have improved since then, but not nearly enough. Women still make up only about 14% of credited songwriters and around 3% of producers on popular records. Festival line-ups are still overwhelmingly male – in 2023, more than 80% of headliners at major UK festivals were men. It’s hard to argue for a level playing field when even the stage itself seems tilted.
And then there’s the question of parenthood. Female musicians who have children face an almost impossible task – touring, recording, travel – all systems are built around the assumption of constant availability. Surveys show that around 80% of mothers in music say their career progression was negatively affected by caring responsibilities, compared to only 30% of fathers. We’re not dropping out because we lack ambition; we’re stepping back because the structures aren’t designed to let us stay in the game.
I’m not sure what the answers are, but for me it starts with visibility and credit but also normalising women in music. For example why is she called a ‘female bass player’? We don’t say ‘male bass player’. When it’s a man playing bass it’s just ‘bass player’. Maybe we should start there?! When women write or produce that needs to be clearly seen but it also needs to feel normal. We shouldn’t be saying ‘oh wow, a female producer or that was played by a female drummer’.
We need family-friendly working models: childcare at festivals and studios, flexible touring schedules, and residencies where art and caregiving can coexist. But most of all, we need a cultural shift. We have to stop treating women’s success as exceptional and start treating it as expected. Until the idea of a woman songwriter, a woman producer, or a 50-year-old woman headliner no longer surprises anyone, the work isn’t done.
**
At first seeing this comment I thought it would be petty of me to respond but then I thought ‘I need to make this point or when will things change?’. I just politely stated that I was fdelighted that the song means so much to him but it was in fact me that wrote it. To his credit he removed the comment and then directly messaged me to apologise. He was pretty mortified. All was forgiven.
SAGE 