“A man does something, it is strategic. A woman does the same thing, it is calculated” - Taylor Swift.

Women in the Music Industry are not only being underestimated for their talents but they are constantly being compared and critiqued on their performance and how they present themselves in their everyday life. Financially, the gender pay gap in the music industry is inadequate compared to other fields of work. Emotionally, more than three-quarters of women working in music experience gender prejudice. Mentally, these influential women have a lot more to cope with in their professions compared to their male peers in the music industry.

Women with families are suffering from more anxiety and depression while trying to be financially stable in the music industry. Prior to COVID-19, “the motherhood penalty meant women in the arts were already more likely to be in part-time or freelance work, earning lower wages or facing job insecurity” (Smith, 2 March 2021). Now, one can only imagine what a female artist’s wellbeing is like with school closings and lack of job opportunities during the pandemic.

At her 2019 Billboard Women in Music Award acceptance speech, Taylor Swift stresses the fact that a woman’s expectation by society is not to achieve success on their own, but rather to be harshly criticized for any move that she makes. Swift claims that “as a female in this industry, some people will always have some slight reservations about you: whether you deserve to be there, whether your male producer or co-writer is the reason for your success... ”. A woman’s struggles in the industry are constantly being overlooked; her accomplishments: are invalidated.

These are only a few pieces of the large-scale corruption in the music industry. If you or anyone you know are going through the struggles of being a musical artist during the pandemic, male or female, please visit the page below:

prsformusic.com/c/help-through-covid-19

Works Cited

Smith, Lydia. “How the Pandemic Has Affected Women in the Music Industry.” PRS for

Music: Royalties, Music Copyright and Licensing, 2 Mar. 2021,

prsformusic.com/m-magazine/features/how-the-pandemic-has-affected-wom

en-in-the-music-industry/
Saunders, Erin. “Taylor Swift and the Misogyny within the Music Industry .” Fieldstonnews.com, Jan. 2021,

fieldstonnews.com/home/2021/01/taylor-swift-and-the-misogyny-within-the-musi c-industry/