Misogyny and sexual assault are commonplace in music

“Lives ruined”, “careers destroyed by men who never had to face the consequences of their actions”: a British parliamentary report denounces widespread misogyny and sexual assault throughout the music industry. This report covering the entire sector, from radios to recording studios and festivals including orchestras, criticizes a “boys club”, or a sector dominated by white men, which exercises strong discrimination against women.

The year 2023 saw women rise to the top of the UK music sales charts like never before, with seven of the top 10 most streamed tracks coming from female artists. The success of stars like Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, RAYE or Libianca masks a darker reality: women “represent less than a third of best-selling artists and only 14% of song writers,” the report points out.

Female underrepresentation is everywhere, particularly in positions of power but also among artists signing with major record labels, in radio or streaming broadcasts, festival headliners or artists selected for awards the most prestigious. This report from Westminster's Commission for Women and Equality paints a landscape of the UK music industry that is terrible for women, even more so when they are from racial minorities or for LGBTQ people.

Britain's biggest music festival, Glastonbury, was criticized last year for only having male headliners, and having had only five female stars on its famous stages over the past 20 years. For this year, organizer Emily Eavis raised the possibility of two female headliners, with the British press talking about Dua Lipa and Madonna. For this same Emily Eavis, the problem is systemic and must be considered at all levels of the profession: record companies, radio stations, music schools where already, according to the report, women who play instruments considered "masculine" like the trumpet or drums are judged more harshly than their male counterparts. A phenomenon which includes racial discrimination and has given rise to the implementation of blind auditions in certain major orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic in the United States.

The list of problems denounced in this report, based on individual interviews and more targeted preliminary investigations, is long, ranging from salary inequalities to systematic belittling, not to mention the constant pressure on the physique of women artists. In addition to discrimination in employment, women are also particularly exposed to harassment and sexual assault.