By Clémence Léo and Lyna
In this article, we are going to talk about the place of women DJs in electronic music. We are a group of three students who chose to work on this subject because we regularly go to electronic music events and we have women DJs as friends. We are witnesses of the difficulties they face as women in a predominantly male sector and we want to understand the causes for the underrepresentation of female artists in electronic music scenes.
In this context, we came up with the following question: why is it so hard to be a woman DJ in the electronic music world and what difficulties do they have to face? Then, we will see what actions are set up to make women DJs visible in the city of Toulouse.
To answer these questions, we first did research about the history of electronic music and about the statistics that identify inequalities in programmation. We also went to an event and we did an interview to learn more about the actions that are put in place in Toulouse to make women DJs more visible.
Since the 1960s, with the arrival of the electric guitar, there is a link between technology and masculinity. Mavis Bayton, the author of the book Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music (2011) talks about the fact that, historically, “many girls played the acoustic guitar and sang […] but the idea of playing the electric guitar was alien to them.” The electronic dance music scene evolved in the early 1980s and the use of machines and digital music technologies became an essential precondition for DJ music making. As we can see, there is a symbolic association between technology and masculinity, men and machines in society in general and in electronic dance music scenes in particular.
In chapter 3 of the book DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology, and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music1, the authors explain that “across historical, local and cultural contexts, DJ cultures have been, and continue to be, overwhelmingly “male dominated”.” The authors conducted a fieldwork among DJs in Berlin, Stockholm, London and Vienna, and observed that “male DJs constituted the majority of DJs in the electronic music scene […] The majority of the “big names” among international and local DJs remain male, scoring the top positions on DJ lists and representing music genres despite the growing presence of female DJs.” In the same book, a female DJ based in Berlin declared that “there are a lot of girl DJs but the thing is that there are still a lot of men in business […] most of the party organizers, the club owners, promotion people are guys.”
A study of the CNM (Centre National de Musique) shows that in 2019 in electronic music, only 11% of the gender lead are women.
There is no equality between men and women in the programming of electronic music events, but also in the profession of programmers. Indeed, the job is largely dominated by men. In this context, it may be hard for women to dare to start as DJs and to feel confident and legitimate in a male environment full of stereotypes. The authors of DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology, and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music explain the scarcity of women artists by the “gendered social construction of technology” and the “images of male artist/musician/producer/entrepreneur and the sexualized images of (young) women […]. The history of music, regardless of genre, has been shaped by a mutually constituting relationship between technology and masculinity, with exclusionary effects for women who wish to become musicians, DJs and/or music producers”.
We met Camille Mathon, the artistic director of the feminist association “La petite”, created to highlight women artists. In our interview, she told us about the resistance to programming women.
Camille Mathon“Resistance was observed among programmers. What came up a lot was that people said: ‘We would like to program women but there are none’.”
Artistic director of “La Petite”
The association “La petite” runs the “Girls Don’t Cry” project. They act for a larger representation of women on the electronic scene and want to show that women DJs exist, that they are active and talented contrary to what some programmers may say.
La petite organizes the Girls Don’t Cry festival which is an exclusively female festival. They act by creating events but also by fighting against sexual and gender-based violence. In the world of electronic music by setting up training workshops for example.
During our interview, Camille told us how precious the associations that specialize in feminist actions are:
“We prefer several independent actions. This is consistent with our values of self-determination. It is the strength of our feminist network in France, to have different structures. This does not prevent us from being connected, we know each other’s associations.”
Camille Mathon
Artistic director of La Petite
In Toulouse, some feminist initiatives are put in place to help women artists to be more visible and more confident. We went to an event called Les Halles de la Cartoucherie X Kaonashi dedicated to women and non-binary or trans people in electronic music in Toulouse. A workshop was organized to introduce the female audience to mixing and there was a round table about the representation of women on the Toulouse electronic scene in the afternoon. A lot of feminist collectives were present, including programmers, artists, media, university researchers etc. This discussion allowed professional women in the electronic music sector to exchange experiences and findings to provide solutions.Among them, a member of the collective Freessons which acts to create inclusive events to talk about feminist movements in rave parties, noticed an adjacent problem : “Today, programmers invite women DJs just to give a positive image of their event with a female quota but women still get booked for the warm-up and are not recognized for their talent.” Indeed, we noticed that most of the time, when women are programmed, they play at the beginning of the party and men do the closing. This fact shows that women are not enough considered for their music and not much valued in electronic music events and they might feel illegitimate to professionalize as DJs.
“If we program at least 50% of women or show a 10% change from the previous year to reach parity, we have access to fundings from the local authorities. But all culture fundings in the area have this rule so instead, it is if people do not follow the rule that they’re going to lose money”
Camille Mathon
Artistic director of La Petite
Therefore, women DJs feel they might be programmed to an event just to fill in the “female quota” and not for their talent because programmers could get funding by respecting women-men equality in their programming. This may be considered as a step forward, but it is important to question the place of female artists beyond their mere presence.
The presence of several members of women collectives in the event Les Halles de la Cartoucherie X Kaonashi shows that the city of Toulouse is committed to give a place to women artists.
Here are some examples of the collectives that were present, with the objectives of their actions:
FREES.SONS:
It is composed of five women. Their objective is to create inclusive events to talk about feminist movements in rave parties (for example eco-feminism).
S.OROR:
This collective is composed of 8 women. They are artists and organizers and they create events to program and to gain visibility.
WOMEN BASS:
This association creates events promoting the place of women in the world of bass music.
WOMEN METRONUM ACADEMY:
This initiative was created by The Metronum, a concert hall in Toulouse. It’s a training workshop intended for women who would like to develop a personal musical project. In this training, it’s possible for women to meet programmers and legitimize themselves to build their career as artists and also to be more confident in their artistic practices.
=> All these initiatives exist in other cities in France and Europe and testify of changes in society to create a movement for the place of women DJs in electronic music. By making round tables, creating women-only events, making women artists more visible, we progressively create changes. All these initiatives such as feminist events, vindications and the creation of new collectives and training contribute to make things evolve. The studies and the statistics help to highlight the remaining inequality, and it’s important to talk about these problems which are found in many areas of society.
- DJ Culture in the Mix: Power, Technology, and Social Change in Electronic Dance Music, Bernardo Alexander Attias, Anna Gavanas, Hillegonda Rietveld, 2013, Continuum Publishing Corporation. ↩︎