Yes, it’s real. No, you’re not imagining it.
I want to preface this piece: I am a woman, I identify as female, and I am part of the Miami music scene. So I understand that I already come into this research and writing with innate bias, but I also come into this with my personal stories that have proven to align with outside research and shared experiences with local women. For the purposes of this exercise, I have one goal: to prove that there is distinct bias against female musicians in the Miami music scene. And one hope: that this will change with time and effort by our shared music community.
I was actually hesitant to continue writing this simply because of the conversations I’ve had over the past year. Writing partners, men in the scene, bookers I was familiar with: “Alexa – there just aren’t many female jazz players down here. Alexa, there aren’t any women playing blues down here. Alexa, Alexa, but Alexa.”
Yes, exceptions exist to every rule, but they don’t excuse the undercurrent of gender-based unfairness; and it also further exemplifies how many genres of music tend to promote or encourage men into music-adjacent positions, while women are encouraged into other pursuits and areas of study and interest.
Then in March of 2024, the Musicians’ Union of the United Kingdom published the results of a Women Musicians Insight Report that re-ignited my desire to bring up the issue and how it’s reflected locally (and on this side of the pond). According to the Report, based on over 2500 female responses, “the Census shows women experience greater frequency of career barriers than the wider population of musicians generally…The gender pay gap also persists with women earning slightly less overall, and being significantly underrepresented in the highest income group. Additionally, many more women report experiencing discrimination than men, with 51% of women reporting experiencing gender discrimination and 33% reporting being sexually harassed while working as a musician.” We’ll touch on the latter points a little later, but for now, let’s talk about taking the UK idea into a more familiar space.
In late December of 2023 into January of 2024, I sent out a much smaller survey to local female musicians of South Florida, with intent to shed light on women in the Miami or surrounding music scene. But not long after, held opinions by local friends and musical acquaintances had inadvertently steered me away from sharing those responses, despite what I was reading in the results (enough of those, “Alexa…it’s not Miami, it’s just the genres that exist here” to lull you into a frustrated sleep and an immense amount of self-doubt about your belief system). I stopped analyzing and evaluating the results and put the figurative pen down.
So here I am, more than a year later, not stopping once again.
Maybe it’s because so many local shows are filled with male-dominated line-ups. Or maybe it’s because the women who dominate the Miami music scene are pushed out or leave due to lack of opportunity. Or maybe, because people we know make comments like, “well she probably got that booking because she’s pretty” (yes this has been said to me about other musicians). Or maybe, you end up getting paid half of what your male counterparts get paid for a festival—and find out about it after you’ve been told everyone was getting paid the same amount (this happened to me at the beginning of 2024 and simultaneously, a female photographer I recommended was equally disrespected by the same team for the same event).
In a local, anonymous survey of 17 female or female-identifying musicians of Miami, there was one male-identifying respondent [I sent this survey out in group chats]. When asked if there were enough opportunities for women in the Miami music scene, that single male respondent is the only respondent who felt there were “a great deal” of opportunities for women in the Miami music scene. 47% of respondents felt that there were “a moderate amount” of opportunities, 41% of respondents felt that there were “a little” opportunities, and one female respondent felt that there were “none at all.”
From a personal perspective, yes. I can see how the opportunities would be moderate. Singer-songwriter nights will usually target a healthy mix of gender identifications. But band shows? Most line-ups are male dominated, with very few women represented on-stage. From discussions with local artists, you’ll hear things like, “well, there just aren’t a lot of women in that genre” or you can see clearly the lineup is part of a pod of local musicians who seem to have their own strongholds across the city. There are barriers to access. Certain musicians only want to work with certain musicians. Someone with a foot in a venue often controls who plays there. And people, by nature, are people. They book their friends, their supporters. Though many bookers are also just trying to book people they suspect will make them profit.
When I asked respondents what they feel is the biggest challenge for women in the Miami music scene, five respondents wrote, in an open-ended response, “being taken seriously” or “being respected.” And in conversations outside of this survey, even more women have said the same. Why? “You have to be sexy to get noticed, not for your talent,” or “Everyone assumes women can only write about specific topics yet, I have so much more to offer and I’m sure others do as well.” Musical countrymen, lend me your ears: Women don’t feel like they’re getting taken seriously.
I know I feel this way, too, so it really was eye-opening to know I wasn’t alone. Some of the other challenges the survey respondents mentioned included, “getting the chance to play with other musicians,” “gigs or events where you’re not the only female,” “booking shows with decent venues,” and “venues prefer male lead cover bands.” (Honestly, after watching a female-dominated Grammys on February 2nd, it’s difficult to wrap my head around the lack of women on stages in this scene.)
In a separate question, when asked if they thought live event spaces and bookers hire enough female musicians in the Miami music scene, almost 44% said no. But about 31% of respondents said it depends on the venue, which on many levels, I agree. When asked to elaborate, it became less about the venue, and more about perceived “booker bias” – whether it meant that male bookers book more male bands, or that bookers would hire their friends over unknowns, or that venues wanted sex appeal, so that would be a cause to hire a woman over a man in music.
I wanted to get an opinion on this, so I reached out to event booker Lizz Dominguez of ZZBookings, who historically has booked for Bar Nancy Miami, as well as other venues in the city. When asked about booking across genders and genres, Dominguez said, “I set boundaries, and then I have to say, am I just being unreasonable? Is it me? And then I have guilt. And then I have guilt for putting my foot down which I don’t think it would be the same for, say [a man].” Dominguez continued, “[The boys] are gonna think I’m putting girls on stage because I’m a girl. I actually wish more women would hit me up.” (Ladies! Hit her up!)
Beyonce, in a virtual graduation speech in 2020, said, “The entertainment business is still very sexist…It’s still very male-dominated and as a woman, I did not see enough female role models given the opportunity to what I knew I had to do. To run my label and management company, to direct my films and produce my tours, that meant ownership—owning my masters, owning my art, owning my future and writing my own story. Not enough black women had a seat at the table. So I had to go and chop down that wood and build my own table. Then I had to invite the best there was to have a seat. That meant hiring women…underdogs, people that were overlooked and waiting to be seen.”
The leader of the Bey-Hive has been breaking barriers for years, and has been part of the industry since she was 9 years old.
But there’s another barrier to opportunity that’s stood out more than others, and that, my readers, is fear.
According to the Women Musicians Insight Report,
“Sexual harassment disproportionately impacts women in music with 32% of women report being sexually harassed while working as a musician, compared to 5% of men…25% of women have witnessed sexual harassment of others in music, compared to 16% of men…The impact of this on women’s careers is demonstrated in the fact that 62% of those who report work related abuse or harassment as a career barrier are women.”
One of the survey respondents in the Miami-based survey mentioned that “harassment and condescension” were the biggest challenge for women in the scene, while another respondent mentioned “you have to be sexy to get noticed, not necessarily for your talent.”
Believe and Tunecore released their fourth annual collaborative report Be The Change: Gender Equity In Music. Prepared by MIDiA Research and featuring a forward by Melissa Etheridge, the report aggregated responses from 4,146 creators and professionals in the music industry. This research was done through an online global survey translated into 14 languages and executed in November and December of 2023. Some of the “highlights”:
- 3 in 5 women in music experience sexual harassment during their time in the industry
- 1 in 5 women experience sexual assault during their time in the industry
- Over 70% of women who experience sexual harassment and assault do not report it
- Of women who reported experiencing sexual assault, 56% said their claims were ignored or dismissed, 38% felt blacklisted afterwards, and 12% said they were terminated afterwards
Reading these statistics is difficult, to say the least. In 2022, after I performed a few songs on stage opening for a friend’s band, a man from the crowd shouted about my breasts while I was still packing up my guitar. He was subsequently yelled at, but the experience shook me. Later that year, I played a private holiday party where I was harassed by drunk patrons, my appearance inappropriately commented on by the host and then propositioned by someone who had pretended to be kind as he walked me out to my car with my equipment. I don’t know about the male musicians in my life, but now I always try to have someone with me at private events or make sure someone is on speed dial, I’ll tell people I have a boyfriend just so they’ll leave me alone (I did this even when I didn’t have a partner), I bought a headlamp so I’m never packing my equipment in the dark, I carry pepper spray, I hold my keys tightly when I walk, I don’t drink too much around male musicians anymore if I’m the only woman. To put it simply, it sucks. Beyond harassment, I have been paid less than my male counterparts. I have had to prove my worth to venues over my male counterparts. I have been fired from gigs because they “just didn’t like female-lead bands.” So if you’re one of the many women who loves the music industry like I do, who faces the difficulties that come with being a woman in this scene, know that you aren’t alone.
I think local Miami musician and entrepreneur Blue Mystic summed up some of these power and fear dynamics well: “The men have the power. The connections. Their foot in the door. You’re told if you get close to this one guy…” She pauses and looks up. “I feel like it’s not just Miami….you don’t have to demean yourself to be relevant in any sort of community. I see women sacrificing their artistic integrity to be seen as popular by men. And I’ve done it. I’ve been there. It’s my honest experience and observation.” She ends with one powerful observation: “If you can turn women against each other, then men keep all the power.”
So to my fellow females, please support each other. To the bookers and fellow musicians of Miami, do better. Be better. And make an effort to make change. Because you, no matter your gender identification, may be unintentionally contributing to the disparity in how women are treated in the Miami music scene and in music scenes across the world.
Don’t know where to start? Support your women in Miami music today by listening to someone new:
