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Started by Equality campaigner Vick Bain, the ‘f.list’ is an online directory that has compiled a list of female musicians (from the unknown to the known) across all genres, locations, and a wide range of categories like bands, solo artists, and groups. Once entered you can see a short portfolio and biography of the artist(s) and their social media links. This means there is no excuse (not that there ever was) to no hire a woman.

Talking to the BBC Bain states “Now there is no reason for people to say, ‘it’s really difficult to find all these women,'”. Through Bain’s research, she found that “The problem for women in the UK music industry is they are still in the minority when it comes to professional work, only 20% of musicians signed to record labels are women and about 15% of festival headliners are women. So they don’t have much presence, professionally, even though they consist of nearly half of all music degree students.”  

 

 

 

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Festivals have been coming under fire due to the lack of representation of female artists. Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit Little Mix where the only Female UK group scheduled as a headline act for UK festivals. Some artists have even stated they don’t want to perform until festivals are at least 50/50 split on gender representation. Matty Healy of the 1975 has come forward as one of the artists, saying, “time’s up” for any festival that doesn’t support women. The point is that Reading and Leeds with more women would be honestly the best festival in the world,”

Sitar player Anoushka Shankar who will be the president of the f.list directory has talked about her own experience with gender inequality, not being hired or looked into for work. She put forward her own views on why women are so often overlooked which is familiarity, people tend to book who they know, work with who they have in the past “It’s the relationships that people already have in music that will be the easiest path to tread, you’ll go back to the same guitarist, you’ll go back to the same bassist that you always worked with.”

The @OfficialRandL lineup with the men removed. Where are all the women aye? #readingfestival #leedsfestival pic.twitter.com/B70Y97IAWZ

— green haired slag (@lucyyy_mccourt) February 11, 2020

Topping the 2021 bill are Stormzy, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Post Malone, Disclosure, Liam Gallagher, and Queens of the Stone Age. The majority of the other acts are also men, including Lewis Capaldi, Two Door Cinema Club, AJ Tracey, and DaBaby. Female acts include Doja Cat, Madison Beer, and Beabadoobee, but online commenters say that these should have been headliners, and that far more women musicians could have been booked. One widely-shared tweet lists a range of popular female artists, such as Lizzo and Dua Lipa, who many feel deserved headliner spots.

list of females that could’ve headlined reading and leeds:

dua lipa
billie eilish
florence and the machine
lily allen
megan thee stallion
lana del rey
charli xcx
clairo
lorde
lizzo
pale waves

— moll (@mollsspangled) August 31, 2020

Since each of next year’s festivals will boast two main stages instead of one, critics argue that their organisers have missed an opportunity to make the events more inclusive and diverse. While some fans simply expressed their dismay, others were angered by the news; one Twitter user calling the line up a ‘display of misogyny’.

As mentioned, Reading and Leeds have been criticised in the past for their male-heavy line ups. In 2015, a photoshopped image of the festival’s poster, which erased all the male acts and left in only the female, went viral. The edited poster highlighted the fact that, among nearly 100 performers, only nine were female, and none of them were headliners. Josh Dalton, who created the image, said: ‘I have a 16-year-old sister who is at the age I was when I started attending festivals. The idea that she could attend the event and quite feasibly not see a single female performer doesn’t quite sit right with me’.

#RANDL21 is going to be BIGGER and BETTER than ever Here are your SIX HEADLINERS across TWO main stages NO MAIN STAGE CLASHES General on sale Thursday 3rd September at 9:00am Reading : https://t.co/2JiEh36rfi Leeds: https://t.co/iG8BIzlOxD pic.twitter.com/n5yeQVvPY8 — Reading & Leeds Fest (@OfficialRandL) August 31, 2020

The festivals also have a history of not putting female-fronted bands on their main stages; in 2014, Paramore became the only such band to headline Reading in over 20 years. More recently, analysis of the 2019 Reading and Leeds line up showed that only 12% of the acts were female performers or female-fronted groups.

In 2018, organisers of 45 UK festivals joined an initiative to get a 50/50 gender split in their line ups by 2020, but Reading and Leeds boss Melvin Benn decided not to participate in the scheme. He remarked: ‘Is that the right way to go about it – to say it’s got to be 50/50? I don’t know that it is’. He instead launched his own campaign called ReBalance, which aims to give 36 female artists one week of studio recording time over the next three years. Benn said this would ‘create a bigger pool of female acts’, thus giving festivals ‘greater choice’ when booking performers.

Despite the recent controversy, Reading and Leeds have promised to make their 2021 festivals ‘the most epic’ yet, with over 200,000 fans expected to be attending. Organisers have also been working on a rigorous coronavirus testing regime, which they say will be ready by next year. Amid the current uncertainty in the live music industry, Melvin Benn has stated that he is ‘very confident’ that the 2021 festival season will go ahead as planned.

 “I often will speak up about female equality, especially in the workplace, but this song is talking about the personal experiences and growing pains of what it’s like to be a woman”, the 24-year-old revealed in the August issue of ELLE UK. She’s explained that in “Boys Will Be Boys” she has addressed a situation many young girls have experienced before: The fear about wearing a certain outfit because of the reaction by men it will cause. “We’ve all tried to avoid confrontation, or worn something we didn’t really want to wear in order to protect ourselves. We’ve all been like, ‘Oh, I can’t bear the idea of wearing this short dress and then hopping on public transport to get to the party.’”

She continues to explain that it’s not only the outfit that’s making many young girls uncomfortable at some point. “I’ve spoken to my friends, and they’ve all done the same things, whether it’s holding keys between your knuckles or pretending you’re on the phone while walking alone at night.”

“I always speak up about female equality and gender equality in general and female rights, but it was very important for me to put something in the album that's close to my heart, that would make other women feel seen and feel heard.“ – @DUALIPA on “Boys Will Be Boys“ [@SCMPNews]

— Dua Lipa Hungary (@dualipahungary) April 5, 2020

The singer is hoping that she can take part in important conversations about what behaviour society is willing to accept and what the reason for it is. One thing is giving her hope: That some men are being held accountable for their actions. “t’s a massive wake-up call to people all around the world that no one is invincible, and no one is untouchable”, Lipa said.

Until then, she’s doing her best. In a recent interview with GQ in May, the “Break My Heart” singer has said that she’d like to work with more female producers in the future, because an all-male studio environment can be intimidating for young artists. She hasn’t worked with any female producer on her recent album “Future Nostalgia”. “I just, in all honesty, don’t know very many. And I really wish I did, because I would really take the time to sit down and hone in a sound with women.”

Who knows, with the ongoing lockdown there might be some girls out their exploring their love for producing, so maybe next time you’ll have the chance, Dua.

“We’ll do what we try and do every year, which is live up to Emily’s idea of a gender-balanced bill,” Bragg said. In discussing the selection for artists, he said: “We aim for as near as possible 50/50 as we can get.”

“To try and reflect society as it is, rather than being just me! I’m really just the front person, our area manager, our head of production, our key person putting together the debates are all female.”

Bragg also praised Emily Eavis, showrunner of Glastonbury, for keeping the spirit of the festival alive. He said: “She’s helped to put her stamp on the festival, the way she’s helped to renew the idea of what Glastonbury is”.

Keeping with the theme of gender-balance, Billy’s beliefs reflect those of The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy. The lead singer declared the band’s intentions to play festivals with gender-balanced line-ups only. 

This was in response to journalist Laura Snapes, over the lack of female and non-binary artists for this year’s Reading & Leeds Festival. As a result, Healy promised: “Take this as me signing this contract – I have agreed to some festivals already that may not adhere to this and I would never let fans down who already have tickets.”

The ‘Frail State Of Mind’ vocalist added: “But from now I will and believe this is how male artist can be true allies.”

Bragg recently performed at Glastonbury 2019. In an NME review of his performance, he was awarded four of five stars.

The review read, “But closing the stage tonight with a cheerfully low-tech performance – just Bragg, his guitar and occasional help from his lead guitarist – the singer-songwriter showed there’s far more to him than barking about politics.”