Partnerships_Flagship Programmes_Women Make Music_Background to Women Make Music

Background to Women Make Music

The creation of our Women Make Music funding opportunity followed a discussion panel we presented in May 2010 in collaboration with Birds Eye View - an organisation that celebrates and supports international women film makers. We wanted to draw attention to the gender gap between male and female music creators and to explore how we could better support women who are making new music.

The Facts:

  • The PRS for Music membership (writers and music creators) is currently only 14% women.**
  • In its 18-year history the Mercury Prize has been awarded to only five women.*
  • Just 4.1% of works performed at the 2010 BBC Proms were composed by women.*

Our Chair of Trustees, Sally Taylor said:
“We have created this call because we want to raise awareness about the funding we offer to music creators and encourage more women to come forward for this support. By promoting role models for future generations, we hope that we will be encouraging more women to think about making a living as a music creator.”

Links

Relevant articles in recent press about the gender gap in music include:

  • Women composers: Notes from the musical margins - Fiona Maddocks discusses how female composers are an exception, but growing in number, in the Observer, 13th March 2011
  • Feminism: What does the F-word mean today? Annie Lennox chairs a discussion for International Women's Day with Beverley Knight and VV Brown amongst others in the Observer, 6th March 2011.
  • EQUALS? Join the big inequality debate - a partnership of leading charities brought together by Annie Lennox to celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day.
  • Helienne Lindvall of the Guardian writing about our May 2010 discussion panel.
  • Christopher Fox highlighting the gender gap in his Guardian article about the 2010 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
  • UK Feminista have some very revealing statistics about how ‘Women continue to be under-represented in British cultural life’.
  • Jon Jacob's Throroughly Good podcast - from our 11th March 2011 launch event - features interviews with Birds Eye View's Founder & Director, Rachel Millward, and our very own Executive Director, Vanessa Reed

*BBC Proms and Mercury Music Prize statistics from UK Feminista
**PRS for Music statistics from PRS for Music