Annie Mac brought us The AMP London Panel with the first day commencing at the Moth Club in Hackney Central, the first panel of the day was one filled with powerful and humble strong females in the music industry.
“Where Are All the Female Bosses” was the title of the panel, and we were blessed to hear from four strong women working in the industry: Carla Marie Williams a songwriter and Founder of Girls I Rate, Charlotte Gunn an Editor of NME, Emily Eavis Co-Organiser of Glastonbury Festival And lastly Olivia Nunn the Co-Managing Director of Island Records.
The ladies spoke about the difficulties of being a woman in the industry, the challenges they faced because of their gender in a male-dominated industry, and how they overcame these obstacles.
Carla spoke about how women might feel that they need to speak louder to get their point across in a male dominated industry:
Annie said: “I think that’s a really interesting conversation, the idea of women feeling pressured to rise up to levels of testosterone to get your point heard, I remember interviewing Wolf Alice and I remember her saying ‘I don’t want to have to speak in the language of men. She said “I don’t want to have to shout, maybe I want to whisper, and I still want to get my voice heard, I think that should be OK.”
Meanwhile, Glastonbury Festival Co-Organiser – Emily who creates the line up with her father Mark Eavis, addressed the issue of having a lack of female headliners at festivals, and how vital it is that a “conscious effort” is made to “push the women through”.
She also said: “There aren’t enough female headliners, there isn’t a big enough pool of artists at that level. “We love taking not obvious headliners and putting them on the Pyramid stages, but we don’t have enough we need more women to choose from.”
The ladies mentioned different ways to tackle, and to change the inequality in the music industry. One by giving women more platforms that will push the conversation further, but with the support of the men in the industry who need to join the conversation too.
Carla said; this topic used to be taboo but more men are now joining the conversation and it’s clear that men and women need to work together to create a balance.
She also went on to say we need funding to develop and get these doors open to produce more opportunities for women in the industry. As more females do break into the music industry, we need to push for equality higher up the food chain, to get the females in more senior roles for us women to own publishing companies and become presidents.