While seeing the huge success that female singers like Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae or Taylor Swift are enjoying these days, one might assume that more women are working the male-dominated live music industry — but that’s far from the case.
Despite progress, women remain a clear minority in the live music industry. In Europe, less than 10% of backstage technicians are women according to a report made by Women In Live Music in 2024, and only 12 to 20% hold leadership roles in festivals or venues as disclosed by Live DMA — revealing a persistent gender gap behind the scenes.
The underrepresentation of women creates a cycle where young girls lack role models to inspire them to pursue careers in live music. While in festivals and venues, staff gender tends to be equal, the roles aren’t well distributed and stereotyped. Women are more likely to be in marketing, merchandising, hospitality, or as auxiliary backstage crew (catering, wardrobe) rather than in technical, operational, or production management positions.
I think the reason that there’s so few women in the industry is because the first couple of years, are very hard. You have to get over the first hump of adversity, of being side-eyed, and not taken seriously. A lot of women probably give up after trying, thinking « this is not for me », but once you get over that hump, you stay, because it’s actually a great job If you do get over it, that means that you’re really good at what you do, because you had to prove yourself so many times, and that’s why the women in the industry, they are successful. – Connie Ettinger, sound engineer and tour manager
Historically, women were mainly singers as being backstage was seing as demanding and physical job and the touring lifestyle was judged unsuited for women. It was not until the 1970’s that women started to emancipate, but they were faced with skepticism, harassment, and being labeled as groupies. In the 1990’s women started forming organisations for themselves and started to find their places in the industry.
The problem isn’t only backstage. Female artists are also marginalised. Citing Live DMA, in 2024, 92% of headliners in European festivals were men and only 30% of artists in venues were women a We can even highlight that France and Portugal are far behind with only 17 and 18% of women booked, according to the same source.
According to different sources, women tend to be more educated than men. For example, 52% of Performing Arts students in France are women, and in the UK, 15% more women than men hold postgraduate music qualifications. But this is not expressed in job positions or salaries. Still based on different sources, while women represent approximately 40% of the workforce, they are still paid less than men by 11%, according to Counting music and it is even worse in the live industry (20% less). It seems that have more financial challenges (27% of female musicians said that they can’t support themselves and their families compared to 20% for men as stated by UK Musicians’ Census.). In France, women with the same competences or jobs earn on average 27% less than men according to The European Commission’s “Culture and Creativity in 2025“.
I think it should starts with the younger generation, in school,. There are a lot of opportunities presented but no one ever says to a young girl, « You can become a sound engineer ». The opportunity is just not being shown, and I think that’s where it should start. – Connie Ettinger, sound engineer and tour manager
Discrimination and expectations are some of the main reasons why women don’t consider or stay in the live music industry. Some genres like rock, rap, electro are considered man genres, while others like pop are considered woman style. Moreover, female artists face pressure about their images and have to fit into certain categories (appearance and behavior-wise) and are often hypersexualized. Female artists have also observed that they are sometimes invited to perform merely to fulfill a gender quota and help venues access grants. Despite recognizing this tokenism, many accept the gigs as one of the few available paths to income and exposure.
Women face double standards. They can be seen as unprofessional and fangirly if they show too much enthusiasm, while a man will just be seen as dedicated. Showing their emotions makes them persived as not tough enough for the touring/backstage life. Women who are the only female crew member often bear the weight of representing all women.
I used to a monitor engineer and production manager for a band and I was the first person to talk to the local people, to coordinate everything. We had boys backliners with us and a lot of times in venue when house engineers, mostly older white men, had questions, they would ask the backliners. The backliners would say « Ask Connie, she’s the one who knows » ,but still they ask the backliners, because they are used to ask men. I was really annoyed about that, and then I just start ignoring it, and I get more confident. People take you more seriously as you grow more confident,, but it’s a learning process.- Connie Ettinger, sound engineer and tour manager
Tempory work is a big form of discrimination in the live music industry, especially in touring, as it involves long, irregular hours and is physically demanding. These factors, combined with the risk of harassment, increase the exclusion of women. Women make up only 37% of the self-employed crew in the live sector, according to a 2024 survey by Women In Live Music.
Reported by a survey conducted by Women In Live Music, aside from discrimination, the unusual working conditions and family responsibilities are also significant barriers. Some women hide their pregnancies in order to keep working, while others quit because of the physical demand of their jobs. Returning after motherhood is also difficult, as childcare responsibilities clash with unconventional hours, or as they are seen as less reliable. Some women leave touring or more stable jobs to take care of their families. That said, performers find it easier to bring children on tour than crew members, who are employees without that flexibility.
SLOWING BUT SURELY IMPROVING
In the last decade, the gender gap has decreased from 6% to less than 1% in the cultural industry. In some countries, like Latvia and Estonia, the number of women in cultural employment exceeded the number of men refering to 2024 data from Eurostat. Despite the saying that women don’t stay long in live music, a survey by Women in Live Music found that almost half of the respondents had worked in live music for 9+ years, and around 7% of women were between 35 and 54.
Female artist representation is getting better too. Primavera Sound in Spain since 2019 and Iceland Airwaves since 2018, have succeeded to reach 50% female lineups. The percentage of women in electronic music festival lineupshas grown from under 10% women in 2013 to 30% in 2023 according to Female: pressure FACT. The number of women going backstage and having important roles is getting better. The percentages of technicians, engineers and backstage crew grew from 4% in 2015 to 8-9% in 2024.
Actions Driving Change
Various efforts promote balance and women’s work in live music:
- Organisation : Keychange is a global initiative promoting gender equality in music. Through its 50/50 pledge, it calls on festivals and organizations to commit to equal representation of women in line-ups, leadership, and programming.
- EU efforts: The European Music Council’s European Agenda for Music calls for better promotion of women’s work, diversity, and accessibility. The European Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy demands equal pay, representation, and a better work-life balance.
- National actions: In 2018 The swedish gouvernment cut funding to jazz institutions failing to meet a 25% women quota in .
- Industry initiatives: Live Nation Entertainment launched Live Nation Women to amplify women’s voices through partnerships, events, and opportunities.
Even though women tend to be more educated, what they need the most and don’t have access to due to men’s gatekeeping is opportunities, experience and networks. To get those and help each other, some women reunite in groups to form organizations and create scholarships, mentorship workshops for females-only, like SoundGirls, SheSaidSo, WILM, Amplify Her Voice workshops.
In the touring world, if you’re a double threat, if you can do two things, you will always get jobs because every band wants to save money. – Connie Ettinger, sound engineer and tour manager
Social media play a huge role in promoting women’s work and creating a network or community. It allows musicians and crews to share their experiences. Moreover, festivals and outlets such as The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork, from time to time, share data and articles on the subject to highlight the issue and show improvements.
Even if the gender gap is still here, many initiatives aim to reduce it and hopefully one day, we will all be equal. Women In Live Music’s goal is to reach 15% female backstage crew by 2030. We can also encourage more festivals and venues to take the KeyChange pledge that aims to reach 50% representation of women and gender-expansive people in their companies and in festival lineups.
The gender gap is also exprimed in the recorded music industry. Women remain largely underrepresented in technical studio roles such as production and sound engineering. This imbalance limits creative diversity and highlights the need to create more opportunities and support for women in these key positions.
Sincere thanks to Connie Ettinger for making time and sharing her perspective on the topic so kindly
By Sarah Chollet
