I was just thinking last night how I was the only female amongst 14 musicians (the gig was a lot of fun though). It was such a coincidence to then wake up this morning to hear it was International Women’s Day today and that only 20% of Australian singer-songwriters are female. We aren’t less talented, less capable or less creative so why aren’t there more of us out there? Well with the structure of our current music industry, it’s damn difficult. I constantly get told by sound technicians that my voice is too quiet compared to men to be picked up by microphones (for anyone who has actually heard me sing, that’s bullshit), or boxed into this assumption that I’m a prissy folk princess as I climb out on stage with a dainty stance and an acoustic guitar. I’ll get questioned about what I’m doing with my future, have I considered what this life will be like for my children? How would I support and raise them? These prejudices only happen because there aren’t more of us out there, we have to change the norm. This obviously isn’t a very structured rant but what I want to say is, music is already a hard road and it shouldn’t be even harder based on gender. The very fact that radio stations have to set quotas on how many female musicians to play each day just shows that we are in the minority. Power to the ladies!
Thank you to Robert Bailey for this photo from The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle.
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