What is Women’s Equality Day & Why it Matters
It is no secret that, over here at Music on The Move Studios, we’re large advocates for women’s rights — not just in the music industry, but in general. The whole reason Music on The Move Studios started was because I saw a need to create a space for women where they could share the stage and empower each other, rather than fight for the very limited spaces available to us in the music industry.
It is much easier to become successful as a whole, rather than try to fight for what you want alone.
According to this article by NPR, in 2021, women only made up 12.7% of the songwriting community, and 2.8% of producers were women.
Which means, despite a rise in female artists across genres, most of their music was created by men.
Women’s Equality Day is celebrated every year in the month of August and comes with a theme. The 2022 theme is “Celebrating Women’s Rights to Vote,” which is not too far off from why the day was created in the first place. It was created by Bella Abzug in 1971, and passed in 1973 “to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote.”(source).
So, why is it important for a music company to care about the 19th Amendment? It’s simple: we care about our right to vote. We care about having our voices heard so that, when we do vote on important factors such as our rights (looking at you, Roe v Wade,) — as well as on laws affecting the music industry (songwriters’ shares, the statutory rate of streaming, album sales, etc.) — we can make sure our voices are heard.
Caitie and I started this company not only because we wanted to make a difference in Nashville. We wanted to create a space where we could prove that women in the music industry deserve to be heard and celebrated. We deserve to be here just as much as everyone else.
Today, go and listen to your favorite female artists. Go find out who those 2.8% of producers are. Find a new independent female artist you want to watch grow! (We’ve got a couple of suggestions for ya…)
Women’s Equality Day is a day to celebrate women. Here at Music on The Move Studios, we celebrate women every day!