New research out of the University of Sydney Business School has once again confirmed that the Australian music industry is suffering from a huge lack of equality when it comes to female representation.
The report led by Associate Professor Rae Cooper titled “Skipping a beat: Assessing the state of gender equality in the Australian music industry” roasts the male dominated industry at large with some shocking stats shining a light on just how unequal it is.
“In terms of gender inequality, this is one of the starkest examples I’ve come across in my research,” Dr Cooper said of her findings, which sees women represent only one-fifth of musicians registered with peak body APRA, despite making up nearly half of the country’s qualified musicians.
Elsewhere Cooper also found that women earn far less from music then men, receive much less airplay on radio and hold only 28 percent of senior positions in key industry organisations.
Whilst the data won’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to the music industry, with festival lineups constantly dominated by dudes and females rarely making it to the top of the likes of Triple J’s Hottest 100, the report does offer 5 key recommendations in taking steps to fix the inequality such as instigating a well-resourced independent gender equality industry advocacy body.
You can check out the full report here.
