‘If She Can See It, She Can Be It’ Continuing To Fight For Equality In The Music Business & Beyond

Amidst all the despair and economic hardships that the live industry has endured during the past year there were still some bright spots for gender-equality as several high-profile promotions and hires elevated more women to positions of power.

Lucy Dickins, formerly head of WME’s UK music division, was elevated to co-head of WME’s Music Division in June. Agents Caroline Yim and Zach Iser joined WME in January 2021 as partners and co-heads of the Music Division’s hip-hop/R&B team.

Other recent milestones include Samantha Kirby Yoh joining UTA in September as a partner and co-head of Worldwide Music.  

In February BSE Global hired Laurie Jacoby as Executive Vice President, Chief Entertainment Officer, a position in which she will oversee programming and marketing at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. 

Reflecting on how the representation of women has improved since she started in the business, ICM Partners board member and Co-Head of Talent Lorrie Bartlett tells Pollstar, “What has changed (only in the last few years) is that there seems to be an intentional and critical examination of the roles traditionally held by men. More often, women are being given an opportunity to compete and win. The proliferation of women in all areas of our business will continue to trend positively; this is a generation of young women who will not allow the past to repeat itself. The seats at the table are well on their way to being shared equally.”

ICM announced an initiative in 2017 to have 50-50 gender parity by 2020 – a goal it achieved a year early. Of ICM’s 22 departments, 14 are run or co-run by women, and the agency also boasts four women department heads who are also Board Members. 

UTA has also achieved 50-50 gender representation among the company’s employees. More than half of the agency’s latest partner class announced in October consists of women and people of color (including Post Malone agent Cheryl Paglierani).

Women make up more than 50% of the staff at WME, as well as more than 60% of the agency’s executive leadership team. 

But there is still a lot of work to do to achieve diversity and inclusion across the industry, and as much as it’s important to celebrate the wins, we can’t move forward without acknowledging where we’re at and how far we still need to go. Pollstar and VenuesNow’s 2020 State of the Industry Survey – representing the largest live industry study of its kind with more than 1,350 participants – confirmed the lack of racial and gender diversity in the live business is acute. Just 32.3% of all respondents identified as female (and .15 as non-binary) and 85% of respondents identifyed as white compared to 11% identifying with another race and 3.9% declining to respond.

The gender pay gap remains an infuriating problem. Music Business Worldwide reported in July that “the average gender pay gap as of April 5, 2019 at Sony Music UK was 26.0%, while at Warner Music UK, it was 31.5%. At Spotify UK, it was 9.9%, and at Live Nation UK it was 44.5%.” MBW notes that companies in the UK with more than 250 employees are legally required to publish gender pay gap stats each April.  

The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative released the fourth annual edition of the “Inclusion in the Recording Studio?” report in early March, assessing gender and race/ethnicity for artists, songwriters and producers appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart. The report conducted by Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, with funding from Spotify, found that women only represented 20.2% of all artists on Billboard’s Hot 100 Year-End Charts in 2020. Women only represent 12.6% of songwriters between 2012-2020 and 2.6% of producers across a subset of 600 songs that were examined. (Click here for a Q&A with Dr. Smith).

Thankfully, companies and executives within the industry are continuing to put in the hard work to make a difference. 

ICM’s Bartlett – who is on the Global Leadership Board for the Time’s Up foundation, which is working to address systemic inequality and injustice in the workplace – has taken on a mentorship role for younger women, including sharing insight as the first Black board member of a major talent agency. She and agent Andrea Nelson-Meigs (who is now a partner at UTA) founded the biennial Phenomenal Women dinner in 2016 to support women of color in the industry. 

ICM’s initiative HerICM, which was launched in 2019, has thrived during the pandemic by hosting a full slate of virtual programming throughout the year including a “Power Lunch” series with the agency’s top women executives.

CAA announced in early 2020 the formation of the majority-female CAA Board to oversee the day-to-day management of the agency. In November, the agency appointed Dr. Sharoni Little to CAA’s Head of Global Inclusion Strategy. 

UTA’s La Femme Majeure initiative launched in 2019 as an event series focused on connecting and empowering music’s next generation of women leaders. During the pandemic, LFM pivoted to digital programming and has expanded into a worldwide initiative with all-female representatives from UTA’s offices in London, New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles. 

Fitz And The Tantrums singer Noelle Scaggs and Nine Inch Nails tour manager Jerome Crooks recently launched Diversify The Stage, a broad-based effort to diversify live entertainment behind the scenes, including staff, crews and other positions across the industry. 

While the industry continues to work toward equality, 2021 highlights so far include this year’s Grammys Awards in which women picked up the top four prizes, with Taylor Swift becoming the first woman to win album of the year three times, (tying with Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder). Beyoncé took home four trophies, making her the most decorated woman in Grammy history with 28 wins. Tiffany Haddish also won best comedy album – the first time a Black woman has been awarded in the category since 1986.

Femme It Forward (which entered into a joint venture with Live Nation in December 2019) is in the planning stages for Next Gem Femme, a mentorship program that will pair young women of color with women at the top of their fields. The application process for mentees begins in May, with the program’s launch in August. At least half of the mentee spots are reserved for students from historically Black colleges and universities.

“I just really wanted to give young women of color the opportunities that I never had. This is exactly what I needed when I was coming up,” Femme It Forward President & CEO Heather Lowery tells Pollstar. 

The early months of 2021 saw barriers continue to be broken by women – with Kamala Harris making history as the first woman to be sworn in as the vice president of the United States. Dionne Harmon, Executive Vice President of Content & Strategy at Jesse Collins Entertainment, became the first Black woman producer of the Super Bowl halftime show (with the Big Game featuring Sarah Thomas becoming the first woman to referee a Super Bowl). As the slogan for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media says, “If she can see it, she can be it.” 

The more women in positions of power, the better it is for all of society, giving girls and boys the chance to dream to be anything they want to be. The live industry can do our part by continuing to hire more women – and for agents, managers, promoters and labels to commit to working with more women artists.  

As the world rebuilds post-COVID, the live business must continue moving forward to become a more diverse and inclusive industry where more women are inspired to head agencies; work on tours in sound, lighting and stage production; produce songs like Beyoncé; write songs like Taylor Swift or tell jokes like Tiffany Haddish.