Gender and Labour in the Music Industry : An exploration into why the music industry has a gender problem and what can be done to change it

2016

Master's thesis in music management MU501 - University of Agder 2016 While numbers are missing, it has become clear over the past decade that the music industry is a place of far-reaching gender imbalance in the form of gender segregation. This paper aims to look at why this is the case, basing its line of argumentation on a close understanding of the mechanisms and structures that lead to the disparity of gender representation in the music industry. It aims at contradicting myths about working in the music industry that, instead of being "cool, creative and egalitarian" (Gill, 2002), proves to be an insecure, exclusive and heavily biased place of work based on informality and exploitation,…