Misogyny in music

Music colleges, conservatoires and other educational settings need to do more to address the gendering of instruments, roles and genres and improve the visibility of and support for female role models. The Government and industry bodies should offer increased, funded and targeted opportunities for women and girls to study subjects and to engage in training in areas of the music industry that remain male-dominated and where women are made to feel unwelcome. (Recommendation, Paragraph 16)

Women have significant additional barriers to pass to get a foothold in the music industry and must navigate acts of passive aggression, ridicule, and misogyny to have a sustainable career. Female artists are routinely undervalued and undermined, endure a focus on their physical appearance in a way that men are not subjected to, and have to work far harder to get the recognition their ability merits. Despite increases in representation, discrimination and misogyny remain endemic. These concerns are intensified for women faced with intersectional barriers, particularly racial discrimination. (Conclusion, Paragraph 34)

Section 14 of the Equality Act 2010 which provides protection from discrimination on the basis of a combination of two relevant protected characteristics presents a limited understanding of how overlapping characteristics are used to discriminate against individuals and prevent the most vulnerable from bringing harassment claims based on their actual experience. The Government should bring section 14 of the Equality Act into force and consider whether an amendment to that section is required to better protect those facing intersectional inequality. Businesses are already aware of their responsibilities to equality of treatment under the Equality Act; bringing section 14 into force would impose minimal additional burdens. (Recommendation, Paragraph 35) 59

Although female representation in the music industry is improving, particularly at senior levels, progress is not uniform and gender imbalance remains entrenched in certain areas. The music industry and government should increase investment in diverse talent and make more funding available to the schemes that support it. Pathways to careers for women working in the sector must improve, particularly in key gatekeeping roles such as A&R and other male-dominated areas including sound engineering and production. (Recommendation, Paragraph 42)

To allow progress to be monitored, record labels should commit to regular publication of statistics on the diversity of their creative rosters. All organisations with more than 100 employees should be required to publish data on the diversity of their workforce and gender and ethnicity pay gaps. (Recommendation, Paragraph 43)

Organisations in the music industry should provide mandatory equality, diversity and inclusion training. These steps are required because misogynistic and discriminatory behaviours remain entrenched despite increased representation. (Recommendation, Paragraph 44) Legislative and other related changes

Having children should not be a barrier to a career in the music industry, yet the evidence we have seen suggests otherwise. While large employers are taking welcome steps to support parents with childcare responsibilities, the industry as a whole needs to reflect on how it can better support parents to combine parenthood with a successful career in music. Increased awareness of the time pressures on parents, improved childcare support and better flexible working arrangements are required across the music sector to relieve gender disparities and aid the progression of women to senior positions. (Recommendation, Paragraph 51)

Reform of parental leave for freelancers is overdue. The current system places the burden of childcare onto the mother and offers no financial support for self-employed fathers or same-sex partners wanting to share childcare responsibilities. The Government should bring forward legislation to allow self-employed mothers and fathers to share parental leave and pay and for the leave to be taken non-consecutively as is the case with PAYE employees. (Recommendation, Paragraph 52)

Freelance workers in the music industry are more likely to be discriminated against yet in many cases do not have the same level of protections under equalities legislation as those subject to more formal working relations. The Government recognises this, as it does the benefits of extending the time limit to bring Equality Act-based cases to the Employment Tribunal. However, in both cases it has failed to make the necessary changes, 60 meaning vulnerable people continue to be unable to access the support they need while perpetrators of discrimination and harassment are allowed to go unpunished. We do not accept that the volume of work in the courts system is a reason for further delay. (Conclusion, Paragraph 61)

The Government should bring forward legislative proposals to extend the protections relating to discrimination and harassment in the Equality Act 2010 to include all freelancers. Limitation periods for Equality Act-based discrimination and sexual harassment claims should be extended to six months. In the meantime, the Government should set out clearly—in its response to this report—which freelance workers are currently entitled to protections under the Equality Act and which are excluded from that protection. (Recommendation, Paragraph 62) Sexual harassment and abuse

We support the Office for Students’ proposed new condition of registration aimed at protecting students from harassment and sexual misconduct. Its effectiveness will depend, in part, on students and staff feeling both able to recognise and report misconduct and that any complaints will be taken seriously. OfS guidance should stipulate that internal reporting pathways must be clearly signposted and independent of the structures and relationships in which harassment and abuse may occur, for example internally via a dedicated pastoral officer or externally to Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority. (Recommendation, Paragraph 74)

The OfS should also require educational settings to ensure that all staff, permanent, temporary and those visiting, are aware of policies around abuse and harassment, including the consequences of inappropriate behaviour. People invited to teach students should undergo background and reference checks and be in no doubt of expectations with regard to conduct. Eminent musicians should not be exempt from these safeguarding duties. (Recommendation, Paragraph 75)

Too often in the past, institutions have put protecting their reputations ahead of a duty of care for their students. The OfS’s proposals for potential loss of funding and/or accreditation should help challenge that mindset. We urge the OfS to implement the new condition as swiftly as possible and to enforce it robustly. (Recommendation, Paragraph 76)

A recording studio should be a safe space for all those who work there. Frequently this is not the case, and commercial self-interest is prioritised over personal safety. We recommend that all commercial recording studios should be licensed. That licensing process should include a sexual harassment risk assessment to ensure that adequate measures are in place to protect the safety of those who work there, particularly during out 61 of hours sessions, and clear reporting pathways when incidents do occur. Studios where there are repeated instances of harassment and abuse should lose their licence. Contracts should allow for termination in the event of inappropriate behaviour. (Recommendation, Paragraph 80)

The Government’s weakening of the Worker Protection Act 2023 has let down women already vulnerable to sexual abuse and harassment in insecure work settings. While we welcome the duty on employers to take ‘reasonable steps’ to protect their employees from sexual harassment, without third-party harassment liabilities, it will be harder for employees to bring a case against employers who have failed to protect them from sexual harassment from audience members and from staff they have not employed. While few cases were brought under the previous provisions, in removing them the Government underestimated their deterrent effect and encouragement of best practice. There is overwhelming support for their reinstatement. (Conclusion, Paragraph 89)

The Equality Act 2010 should be broadened to impose a duty on employers to be proactive, rather than simply reactive, in protecting workers from third party sexual harassment and for a statutory code of practice to support them in doing this. A statutory duty would create a clear and enforceable legal requirement on all workplaces to safeguard workers, and help bring about cultural change in the workplace. Employment tribunals should impose greater penalties in cases where perpetrators of harassment and bullying behaviour are found to have acted vindictively against complainants. (Recommendation, Paragraph 90)

Guidance for employers and employees, including freelancers, on the new duty to protect from sexual harassment, should set out how employers should prevent and manage sexual harassment coming from third parties in the absence of legal protection, including how all parties can report it, regardless of employment status. (Recommendation, Paragraph 91)

Public funding and licensing of music venues should be made conditional on those premises taking steps to tackle gender bias, sexual harassment and abuse. This should include the training of venue staff by accredited organisations that work in the sector. The Government should review international examples, such as the measures introduced in France, Ireland and Barcelona, and introduce similar policies in the UK. The Government should consider making funding available to smaller venues to enable them to meet this condition. (Recommendation, Paragraph 96)

Security Industry Authority accreditation for security staff to work at live music venues should include training on dealing with discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse. That training should be survivor-led and provided by accredited organisations dedicated to improving safety for women. (Recommendation, Paragraph 98) 62

Expecting women to change in front their male peers or in their car, or to share rooms or beds with male colleagues while on tour, is unacceptable and raises safety concerns. The music industry needs to improve its facilitation of mixed groups. As a minimum, venues that host live music should provide adequate, separate dressing room facilities for women and gender nonconforming musicians. (Recommendation, Paragraph 100)

Sexual harassment and abuse in the music industry remains widespread. Aggressors act with impunity while victims who report actions against them very often face further harm by doing so. It is disappointing but not surprising, that non-reporting is high. Organisations should not assume a low incidence of reported cases means they do not have perpetrators of harassment and sexual abuse within their employment. They should instead reflect on why anonymous surveys in the industry return high figures of misconduct, yet their internal surveys do not. (Conclusion, Paragraph 108)

Awareness of what constitutes inappropriate behaviour and discrimination needs to be improved and reporting pathways made clear. A reporting structure needs to be available to everyone working in the industry, not just those who have access to HR departments, which we heard were at best ineffective and at worst damaged the victim further. The industry is moving in this direction with the establishment of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority; the question is whether it will have the necessary levers to be effective. (Conclusion, Paragraph 109) Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority

We support the creation of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA). It will help to shine a light on unacceptable behaviour in the music industry and in doing so, may reduce the risk of further harm. Crucially, it will be a single, recognisable body anyone in the industry can turn to for support and advice. CIISA must ensure that individuals who make reports are advised of their legal rights expeditiously to ensure legal deadlines are not missed. It will need to have in place robust safeguarding measures to protect those who report from retaliation and trained staff, including specialist counsellors, to support the mental wellbeing of those who call upon its services. (Recommendation, Paragraph 121)

We are concerned that legislative barriers may prevent CIISA from operating effectively. We call on the Government to discuss with CIISA the potential impact of GDPR requirements on its work and to take the steps required, including any legislative changes, to allow CIISA to properly discharge its functions. (Recommendation, Paragraph 122) 63

The establishment of CIISA is an opportunity to educate the music industry on the rights of self-employed workers and the responsibilities of those hiring them. It can become a hub of expertise. Earlier in this report we set out how training should be part of the licensing conditions for live music venues. We described how France’s National Centre of Music is working with grassroots organisations to provide training around sexual harassment and sexual violence. We ask CIISA to consider whether it could undertake a similar role in the UK, for live music venues seeking to meet new licensing conditions as well as other organisations such as recording studios and educational settings, and for that training to also include tackling issues of misogyny and gender bias. (Recommendation, Paragraph 123)

CIISA has committed to producing an annual report. That report should include an overview on the state of the music industry with respect to levels of discrimination, harassment and abuse and diversity. Reported data should be broken down by protected characteristic. The report should include relevant findings on the adequacy of organisations’ internal reporting processes, support for complainants, training on dealing with incidents of sexual harassment, the safety of women on their premises and any attempts—successful or otherwise—to silence victims of unacceptable behaviour through the use of non-disclosure agreements or similar confidentiality arrangements. Organisations about which CIISA has significant concerns should be named. Events have shown that only by calling out such behaviour will the culture that protects abusers over victims change. (Recommendation, Paragraph 124)

CIISA is not a panacea for all of the problems of discrimination, harassment and abuse in the industry. It is not a statutory body. Reforms to the Equality Act 2010 remain essential in order for freelance workers to be adequately protected from discrimination. Ultimately, CIISA’s effectiveness will be judged on whether it can move the instincts of organisations from putting the interests of a potentially lucrative but abusive person they view as an asset ahead of the needs of their victims. We hope CIISA will be a success. Time will tell whether the powers available to it are sufficient to drive that change. (Conclusion, Paragraph 125)

Managers have a very important role in supporting artists’ careers but incidents of exploitation show that protections are required. CIISA should work with the Music Managers Forum to develop and oversee a mandatory accreditation programme for managers in the music industry. The licensing of football agents is one example of what such an accreditation process might look like. (Recommendation, Paragraph 129) 64 Non-disclosure agreements

The Government should urgently bring forward legislative proposals to prohibit the use of non-disclosure and other forms of confidentiality agreements in cases involving (a) sexual abuse, sexual harassment or sexual misconduct; (b) bullying or harassment not falling within (a) and (c) discrimination relating to a protected characteristic. We are encouraged that the Government is working on such proposals but urge expediency. (Recommendation, Paragraph 138)

We have heard distressing evidence on the effects on the mental health of people silenced by a non-disclosure agreement. The Government should consider the potential merits of a retrospective moratorium on NDAs for those that have signed them relating to the issues we have outlined, with an assurance that they cannot be pursued for cost recovery should they choose to discuss their experiences. (Recommendation, Paragraph 139)

Until the law is changed banning the misuse of NDAs, anyone being asked to sign an NDA should have an automatic right to seek advice from qualified lawyers at CIISA. No individual should be provided with legal advice by a law firm also acting for the other party. (Recommendation, Paragraph 140)

CIISA should collect and annually publish data on the use and threatened use of NDAs in the music industry. (Recommendation, Paragraph 141)

The Government must develop and introduce a new strategy in schools, aimed specifically at boys on issues of misogyny, sexual harassment and gender-based violence. (Recommendation, Paragraph 145) 65