Where are the women on stage?
Music festival season is just beginning, and with it comes yet another reminder that women still have a long way to go before we achieve equality. Although there are plenty of female acts to choose from, and they clearly deliver when included — some even argued the female acts stole the show at SXSW, for example — one need only look at lineup posters to see the persistent imbalance of men to women at these festivals.
This is not a new phenomenon: Men have long outnumbered women when it comes to festival lineups and headline performers are almost always male. Among the most popular British music festivals last summer, for example, all but one festival completely excluded female acts — and that single female act was a last-minute replacement for a male band that cancelled. Instead of trying to address this problem and create a more equal line up at their festivals this summer, though, organizers are instead outwardly denying that there is an issue at all.
There are plenty of potential reasons for this imbalance, such as the disproportionate threat of harassment and lack of privacy and safety women face at these festivals. The music industry is also a male-dominated and undeniably sexist field: 61 percent of those working in the music industry are male and, of course, female artists are constantly sexualized and paid less than their male counterparts.
This inequity is unacceptable. Plenty of female artists and acts have giant fan bases and have accomplished incredible things in the industry. That festivals ignore the abundance of successful female musical acts — and popular demand for them — is simply sexist and lazy.
We may not see any changes to this year’s lineups but I hope next year shows improve. I don’t want my only memory of a female headliner at Glastonbury to be Beyoncé: Though she was excellent, I’d like to think she was paving the way for other female acts, not the exception to the male-dominated rule. Until my dream becomes reality, though, I will continue to support female musicians doing what they do best and hope others do, too.
