Samro is South Africa’s oldest royalty collection and distribution organisation. Like other similar South African bodies, it is managed through the industry and collects a percentage for artists each time their paintings are performed, broadcast or used commercially. Concerned by reports about the mistreatment of female music creators and their underrepresentation in key roles, Samro began focusing on this factor in 2022.
As a South African music scholar who has undertaken commercial studies, I led the studies project.
Global studies have highlighted significant gender inequalities in musical painting and some educational studies in South Africa suggest that the scenario is very similar. But this is the largest pattern studied so far in South Africa. This new knowledge quantifies the challenge and gives voice to those who feel it.
Conducted in late 2023, the study collected online responses from 357 people, 75% of whom were women, about their private reports and observations on fairness, representation, and protection in the industry. The “observations” gave space to respondents who did not identify as women, as well as those who needed the shield of distance to describe what have been traumatic non-public reports.
The survey questions emerged from Samro’s extensive initial studies in 2022 as inputs from a roundtable held in Johannesburg as the occasion of our survey publication.
The majority of respondents worked full-time in the music sector and had been active in the industry for over a decade. All ethnic teams and provinces of South Africa were represented (although the pattern was more commonly urban). Respondents reported running in a variety of musical styles, from rap to rock to classical.
Despite their long experience in the industry, 56% say they earn less than R5,000 (US$270) per month, which is less than a fifth of the national average salary.
Unfortunately, some of what those anonymous musicians told us was predictable. 63% said microaggressions as “inappropriate comments” were common, such as mansplaining: ignoring their concepts until they were repeated through a man. One of them said:
Another replied that they were given “a name as musical director, without the strength to do the task properly. “Half of them have experienced interviews about paintings that raised irrelevant questions related to gender. 62% had to adopt genre and non-musical paintings. such as catering during band rehearsals.
Some even more worrying insights. Almost a third of them have experienced work pressure to have sex. More than a third have not noticed anyone intervening to help them in case of sexist harassment. 42% faced the assumption that “I am sexually available because I am a musician. ” One of them reported:
Producer-run studios have been sites of exploitation of all kinds:
In a context where South African women face high rates of gender-based violence, 68% of them do not feel that they can go to and from work. Many did not have privacy to put on their level suits. During the tour, the women said they had to. Percentage of rooms with male roommates unless they pay for their own rooms.
Paying for transportation and separate rooms was one facet of what’s considered the music industry’s pink tax: the extra costs for simply being a woman, which also come with an investment in appearance and dressing to fit men’s police gaze. . And of course, the parents’ expenses. Musicians, both male and female, can be parents, but as one of our respondents observed:
We focused on women who run with live music, but many responses alluded to the fact that harassment has its roots in music education. Certain tools and roles are known through gatekeepers such as male teachers as “appropriate” for women, the role of singer. A rock bassist observed:
In our employer, and around the world, women were noticeably absent from decision-making and technical positions such as production and sound engineering, something that Samro’s first survey also pointed out. This lack of role models can create a vicious cycle of underrepresentation: if you can’t see it, you can’t be. Samro has introduced workshops especially aimed at women in these fields.
Our report also included contributions from female singers in our 2023 launch panel. They described that they were tasked with adding content to a producer’s concept without credits or payment, i. e. , creating loose compositions. When asked if they could easily name female songwriters working in the industry, one interviewee responded:
Poor operating conditions and low pay are, of course, not unique to female musicians in a largely project-based, independent and unregulated sector. Several responses highlighted that operating situations in the music industry are uniformly poor.
Our interviewees said that their main demand was that all works of art be subject to applicable legislation, adding minimum wage, fitness and protection and anti-discrimination, supporting the implementation of codes of practice for employers, places and studios.
Despite these obstacles, South African musicians are fighters. Contrary to the doubts that arise from some foreign surveys, 90% of our respondents declare themselves confident of having a position in music.
The imperative is to create increasingly safe spaces where musicians can make their own possible choices about the expression of their feminine identity, free from any tension to overinterpret or suppress it. Our studies have begun; There is still much to do.
This study was carried out as part of the ConcertsSA programme in partnership with IKS Cultural Consulting. Support came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway and the Royal Embassy of Norway.
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