Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Increase funded opportunities for women and girls in male-dominated music industry roles and training.
Recommendation
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)
Government Response Summary
The government highlights existing legal protections under the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty, alongside improved gender balance in music higher education. It refers to the National Plan for Music Education and initiatives like Music Hubs' Participation and Inclusion Strategy and Inclusion Leads from September 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
All schools and colleges in the United Kingdom are already subject to the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty, meaning that all students are protected from discrimination based on their sex under the law. It is also a funding requirement that colleges take all reasonable actions to offer equality of access to learning opportunities and to close equality gaps in student learning and outcomes. There is evidence that gender balance in students studying music in higher education has improved in recent years. The proportion of UK acceptances to music courses at UK higher education providers that are women has increased from 39.4% in 2019 to 45.4% in 2023. In addition, the number of UK female students that accepted places on higher education music courses has increased by 9.4% from 2019 to 2023.1 This is in part due to improved gender balance in music education for younger students and the significant work of Government-funded Music Hubs and many music education charities over recent years in tackling disparities between girls and boys. The National Plan for Music Education was jointly published by the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in June 2022, and sets out the Government’s vision for music education up to 2030: to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally. Central to this vision is inclusion, so that all music educators working with children and young people to 18 commit to achieving greater access and more opportunity in music education, identifying and removing barriers. As part of achieving this ambition, the network of Music Hubs across England will have a Participation and Inclusion Strategy from September 2024 as part of their Local Plan for Music Education, including access to a range of musical instruments. All Music Hubs will also have an Inclusion Lead with the role of broadening access and improving participation in music. As education is a devolved matter, the National Plan for Music Education applies to England only.