AFEM Gender Diversity in the Electronic Music Industry Report

Shifting perceptions and values held by individuals is an important step towards combating prejudice and raising awareness of unconscious bias in the workplace.

Recognising this, AFEM in partnership with Professor Samantha Warren and Dr Foteini Kravariti, from University of Portsmouth, UK, commissioned their first ever Gender Diversity in the Electronic Music Industry Survey, designed to map attitudes and values among electronic music industry professionals towards the subject of diversity and inclusion.

Focusing initially on gender, the survey forms part of a broader long-term commitment to understanding perceptions on diversity within electronic music organizations across all sectors. The AFEM Diversity & Inclusion Group will explore effective follow-on actions, initiatives and cross-industry collaborations to address the issues raised in the survey findings.

“Women in senior ‘management’ are present but their advice is constantly ignored.” (survey respondent – Female)

 

Key findings of the report include:

– Only 16% of electronic music workplaces have majority female or female identifying employees.
– 39% of workplaces had senior management teams with less than 1 in 10 women.
– Despite women in the sample showing a higher level of education than men (more women than men had Master’s degrees) women are three times less likely (28%) than
men to be at Executive level (71%) in their organizations.
– Less women being employed in the jobs that pay the most is likely to be a significant
factor in the high gender pay gaps reported across larger organizations in the music
industry.
– 97% of respondents agree that D&I makes for a more engaging work environment.
– 20% of respondents thought D&I was not a problem in the electronic music industry.
– Male respondents were four times more likely than female respondents to disagree with
the use of quotas to make employment decisions.
– Women were 11 times more likely than men to feel in a minority because of their gender,
with 88% of women surveyed selecting ‘gender’ as a reason for feeling in a minority at
work, compared with 8% of men.
– 71% of these women felt like they had to ‘act like one of the boys’ in order to fit in at
work.
– 50% of women and 39% of men identifying as minorities reported unwelcome behaviour
at work suggesting this is a serious workplace issue for all minorities. However, no men who identify as minorities attribute their poor treatment at work to their gender – only women report experiencing bullying and/ or harassment on those grounds.
– Only 49% of the women who identify as a minority felt their work was respected and taken seriously, against 72% of men. 12% of male minorities believed their work was not taken seriously, compared to 25% of women who were asked the same question.

The survey was developed, piloted and administered by the AFEM Diversity and Inclusion working group, with the project led by Sarah Hildering, Shino Parker, Hannae Brand, and Samantha Warren. Data was analysed by Prof. Samantha Warren and Dr. Foteini Kravariti, with kind support from the Faculty of Business and Law, University of Portsmouth, UK.

Click Here to download and read the full report