Conversation Starters for Gender Equity in Music

Plus: 2025 Finalist for The Women Changing The World Awards

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WCW Awards Finalist

Thea Wood and Herizon Music are honored to be finalists in the 2025 Women Changing The World Awards “Journalism and Media” category. The awards are a global program recognising the work of incredible women making a positive difference in the world across a range of industries and areas including business, sustainability, leadership, health, education, product development, innovation and technology.

The WCW organization was founded by Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York), Dr. Tererai Trent (Oprah’s “favorite guest”), and Peace Mitchell & Katy Garner (co-founders of AusMumpreneur, the Women's Business School, and WCW Press).

“Women in music tell the stories of all women everywhere through song. Now, more than ever, their voices need to be heard and documented for future generations.” — Thea Wood

Conversation Starters for Gender Equity in Music

Herizon Music is more than a newsletter and podcast. It’s a company founded on a mission to promote gender equity in music. My friend Myrsini visited this weekend and reminded me that part of that goal is to raise awareness that this problem even exists in the industry.

After all, isn’t music all about peace, love, and good vibrations? I wish it were that simple.

Superstars like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dominate headlines, but our newsfeeds can be deceiving. This leads to a lot of questions about why I’m spending my time on a cause that many feel is a nonissue. Here are some good conversation starters for you when the topic of gender equity arises. Turn skeptics into allies with these frontline facts!

• Women swept the top categories the GRAMMYS in 2024, which has only happened seven times in the past 66 ceremonies, according to Billboard.

• Women in the arts earn $20K less than their male counterparts (Billboard).

• MIDiA Research study surveyed over 4100 creators and music professionals and found that three in five women in music have experienced sexual harassment, and that one in five have experienced sexual assault. Most go unreported for fear of professional retaliation.

• Substacker Eleanor Halls wrote about the historic aging-out problem women face when they hit their 30s.

• In my interview with Kaylie Shore, she tells of getting turned down by a record label because they already had too many women on their roster. In 2019, Northwestern released a study that revealed of 5,000 record labels, only one third had *ever* signed at least one female artist.

• Of the 13 frontline major record label groups operating in the United States in 2019, one of those labels, Sony’s Epic Records, was run by a woman. One of them, Warner’s Atlantic Records, was co-run by a woman. All of the rest, were run by men. (Rolling Stone)

• While women make up half of U.S. music festival ticket sales (TSE Entertainment), data from 2022 to 2023 show there were 29.8% female acts or acts with at least one female booked per female:pressure. Many local clubs have a worse track record. Detroit’s Fillmore, for example, music headliners listing shows 27 male acts, 4 female acts, and 2 mixed gender acts as of April 8, 2024.

People are truly stunned when they hear these stats. Pass them on. Knowledge is power and incites change.

Comments or questions? Please leave them in the comments. Thank you!

Thea 🎶