Thirteen spaces with a feminist approach in the Ibero-American music industry

The inequality between men and women in all social spheres or cultural expressions of any kind is abysmal. The music industry in the world does not escape this imbalance and gender discrimination that makes us sick as a society; it reflects, in an equally brutal way, the systemic problems that women face in the rest of the labor, cultural, social, political and economic spheres.

This discrimination is expressed in under-representation, sexual harassment, lower salaries for equal performances, obstacles to signing the authorship of their compositions, low visibility, meager presence at festivals and in professional groups. All of these remain "normal" issues in the middle of 2020.

The figures are shocking. They tell us, among other truths, that the industry needs for a long time clear actions that induce a fairer balance for them. Hence, new initiatives are being promoted, other scenarios are sought and, especially during the last five years, new projects coordinated by women from the industry itself have been set up in our region.

The following are 13 initiatives, collectives, platforms and meeting points, whose work we consider to make all these problems clearly visible, they propose to change this twisted and not at all natural order of things. Among these there is none born in Cuba, where, except for isolated actions and projects that do not yet make up a common discourse, we do not have experiences of this type. Neither, be it fair, are there all that are; Fortunately, it is a very alive terrain, in which new alliances and nodes are constantly emerging, changing and establishing themselves.

Although with their exceptions, these examples have been staged in the last three or four years. In that short time they can expose a generous endorsement of successes, achievements and, above all, an inexhaustible reserve of inspiration for many other women who now already know that there are alternatives, that they are not few and that they are not alone.

THUNDER. Plurinational Transfeminist Network of Music Workers (Argentina)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

Within the framework of the compulsory social isolation that COVID-19 has produced, and using technology and virtuality, it finally took shape this network. It had been weaving since the first National Meeting of Women's Music, organized by the Asociación Civil Música de Mujeres de Santiago del Estero, and it was taking shape in different festivals, meetings, and activities during 2018 and 2019.

Its main objective is to summon and bring together women, lesbians, bisexuals, trans, transvestites, intersexuals and non-binary people who work in the Argentine music sector. In two assemblies in which more than 80 people participated, representing more than 20 provinces and the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, the need for this federal and transfeminist space for contact, thought, exchange and the construction of a Representative political action of today in the Argentine music sector. As background, a long road traveled by women and managers with the support of institutions such as the National Institute of Music (Inamu), led to the approval in November 2019 of a law that establishes a minimum female quota of 30 percent for musical events.

Feminine Hi-Fi (Brazil)

Photo: Courtesy of the project.

The project was founded in 2016 and its work focuses both on the appreciation of the role of women in the context of the sound systems characteristic of reggae culture and its promotion, as well as on the expression against social oppression derived from issues of gender. With interventions of singers, singjays and MC at the microphone, the musical selection goes through the eras of Jamaican music and correlated Brazilian productions. In addition to the music curator activity, Feminine HiFi proposes and carries out activities to stimulate learning and the exchange of information (talks, exhibition of documentaries and workshops) and has the label Feminine Hi-Fi Tunes, dedicated to the recording, promotion and distribution of music focused on the female voices of reggae .

The project has already brought together almost a hundred women in its line-ups in Brazil and has made inroads into important events and stages of the Brazilian cultural scene.

In 2018 they moved to Europe, doing a two-month tour and passing through a total of six countries (Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Spain) and 12 cities.

Femfest Coordinator (Chile)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

Self-managed organization that since 2004 groups together musicians, bands, social organizations and artistic groups around the creation made by and for women. They promote their participation in rock and other musical and artistic expressions, generating spaces, visibility, diffusion and a cultural circuit that culminates each year with the Festival.

Femfest born in Chile from the need to open spaces for women within the musical world, which has historically been a space for men. To date they have held 11 festivals Femfest in various parts of the country.

La Matria Fest (Chile)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

Platform and concert tour that seeks to open spaces to have more women and dissidents on stage. Fighting the exclusion of Chilean music in local spaces has been the banner of the womb, which began activities in 2017 as a successful inn, and last year held its own festival at Club Chocolate. After the Chilean social outbreak, the project took a turn in its 2019 edition and, in tune with the social movement, announced that this year the festival would be free and massive, and would include the participation of prominent national artists Ana Tijoux, Princess Alba, Pascuala Ilabaca, Consuelo Schuster and Mariel Mariel, one of its founders.

Almighty (Colombia)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

They are described as a ecosystem of analysis, production and circulation of music content made by women. The colective almighty counts among its founding partners María José Camargo, María del Rosario Cardona and Alejandra Gómez. They work in music from different areas such as artists, journalists, composers, researchers, managers and entrepreneurs. Its objective is equal opportunities within the national music industry, a culture of inclusion in the different links of the production chain, and the forceful representation of diversity in local cultural scenes where there are musical initiatives.

MIM Association (Spain)

Screenshot of the Association's website.

It was born in September 2016 during the 28th edition of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. During the months prior to your constitution, in Madrid, Barcelona and Coruña there were meetings of female professionals, who, by sharing experiences, concluded that it was really necessary to create a platform where professionals in the sector could generate visibility, and highlight both their work and the lack of equity of opportunities and the natural relevance of women in Spanish music, a dysfunction that most of the time is dissipated, above all due to the immediacy and volume of work.

The Spanish Carmen Zapata, Almudena Heredero and Patricia Gabeiras, all with extensive experience in the management of popular music in Spain from various angles, are its main coordinators. In the Association artists, management professionals, managers, marketing and music journalism workers, from music companies ticketing, programming, music industry lawyers and other professions associated with music production and distribution.

“Our ultimate goal is our dissolution. We wish with all our strength that the day will come when our association, or our website, is not necessary, or that our website and association become Music Industry Professionals, where men and women have the same treatment, the same salaries, the same opportunities, and the same possibilities”, can be read on their page.

Women and Music (Spain)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

It was born with the main objective of making visible and combating sexist dynamics in the music sector, to achieve a scenario of equity in which gender does not limit the opportunities or the roles to be played and does not condition the public's response. The main goals with the project are:

– Change the landscape of underrepresentation of women in all areas of the current music scene: festivals, producers, record companies, media…

- Make visible women who have marked the history of music and those who are currently beginning to forge a path in music.

- Raise awareness about machismo in song lyrics, in education and in the music industry, and introduce a gender perspective to change this situation.

- Give a voice to the different groups that struggle to change the scene and join forces, promoting joint actions, disseminating activities and collaborating to generate synergies.

These purposes are fulfilled through research and dissemination of data, reflections and debates, promotion of records and events carried out by women or with a gender perspective and the promotion of the active and conscious struggle against unjust situations due to gender in the musical field. . At the same time, they generate a database of female musicians to facilitate the discovery of new artists classified by genres, countries, periods, instruments ...

It's about a collaborative project, opened and led by Laura Valls (Lawy), Silvia Valle, Ale Castellano and Nora Haddad.

Sorora Music Collective (Paraguay)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

There are nine girls involved with different roles from which they all contribute different ideas and concepts, but always keeping the objective clear: to install and make visible the low representation of women in the musical ecosystem. Opening spaces for debate and trust between the different workers, they seek to build and make the collective stronger. They are clear that only in this way, united and represented, will they reach the political decision makers and the legislative sector. They have created sorora party, a festival with the aim of offering an alternative space to female projects that do not appear on the posters of the most important festivals in the country.

More Music (Uruguay)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

This group began to take shape in 2017 and in March 2019 it accessed a Fund from the Municipality of Montevideo, through which it was finally able to create your website and since then he has not stopped working. The objective of the platform is that it can be used as a tool to spread the work of women and musical dissidents throughout the country, and can be consulted by those who produce shows to easily access Uruguayan sonorities according to musical genre, department, format, etc.

They have research, articles and reports on the situation of women in the industry that they publish on the web, a space that allows them to show their work and generate a profile with relevant information and links to your creations.

They held the first Meeting of Women and Dissidences of Uruguayan Music on June 15, 2019. The event had a panel of referents, simultaneous debate tables, moments of meeting and integration, and a closing festival. 150 musicians from different parts of the country participated. Within this framework, they organized a festival for gender equity that was held on August 11 in the Sala Zitarrosa.

EIMIM. Ibero-American Meeting of Women in the Music Industry (Ibero-America)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

Try to delve into the most pressing issues through a powerful professional training program that affects the new generations. At the level of cultural management, building a space for professional and business exchange, EIMIM It aims to position itself as the most relevant platform in the sector, hand in hand with the revaluation of the role of women in the music industry in Latin America and with Mexico City and Madrid as hubs.

Transsectional and intergenerational space for meeting, interaction and projection of creative women, artists, producers, businesswomen, managers and academics. It seeks to reflect, promote and articulate ideas and actions around the presence and work of women in the music industry in Latin America. With a congress format, it had its first edition from May 23 to June 14, 2019 in Mexico City, with spaces for conferences, master classes, talks and debates. It arises because “the need to implement gender perspectives has become urgent: from the most intimate spheres of daily life to business spaces, the sociocultural differences that concern gender (women, the LGBTTIQ + community and non-binary identities) legitimize inequality. On the other hand, cultural diversity is not significant in business logic despite the insistence of international agencies on its importance as a development factor ”, they explain.

Satellite LAT (Latin American Network)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

The international Satellite LAT Women in the Music Industry is a non-profit initiative created at the end of 2018 by women who work in the music market, which aims to promote gender equity and female representation in festivals and music fairs in the Latin American continent. Equity must be present in the scenarios, in the backstage and technical team, in command and decision positions, in the professional market and in all instances that involve the organization and realization of these events.

It was established as a priority objective that in the year 2020 the main festivals and musical events of the Latin American continent would have already adopted actions capable of expanding female participation in this market, both in the creative field and in the various operational, technical and decisive instances.

satelite is still in its founding period and is made up of music workers from 15 countries, with the purpose of influencing spaces where different people who make up the productive music sector come together (fairs, markets, festivals, meetings...) and through Specific actions (talks, workshops, conferences, panel discussions, surveys, etc.) highlight the lack of inclusion and visibility that women have endured over the years from the different roles they play in the region's music industry Latin American. Therefore, as a final objective, they intend to distort practices associated with discrimination by gender and not by ability, installed in the Latin American musical ecosystem.

The network has the spirit of spontaneous and collective organization. Those who wish can register to make contact with other women in the music industry.

EVA Music Market (Latin America)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

It is a market for music; a space for generating business around Ibero-American sonorities. EVA Music Market It is the first virtual meeting of artistic link born from the digital. It arises from an alliance of music agents from Chile, Mexico and Colombia and seeks to be a meeting point for musicians, managers, producers, labels, agencies, festivals and other leading and supporting actors of independent Ibero-American music management with an inclusive approach. : all the musical shows will be in charge of soloists and bands led by women.

we are noisy (Latin America)

Photo taken from the project's social networks.

Platform + festival + Latin American feminist community that promotes the empowerment of women in the music and creative industries. It seeks to create a space feedback and positive discussion, where you can break with the patriarchal and binary story that also rules in the context of music and generate an instance to build your own story from another perspective. Its objective is to place women as protagonists of the story, the stage and the poster of the festival, as well as to make visible and learn more about women who are referents and examples in this field.

In less than four years have made festivals in cities such as Santiago de Chile, Valparaíso, Mexico City, Lima, among others; panels in Buenos Aires, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Valdivia and more. They published the first research on female participation in music festivals in Latin America, creating content and networks for collaboration, communication and dissemination of women... and making a lot of noise!