Calls for better representation of women in music
A DkIT music event called for better representation of women in national cultural history, as the centenary of women’s suffrage in Ireland was marked last week.
In honour of the centenary the Department of Creative Arts, Media & Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), in association with Sounding the Feminists and the Centre for Creative Arts Research, hosted a one-day symposium on women in popular and traditional music in Ireland.
The event brought together scholars and community activists engaged in work to address gender imbalance in both the music industry and academia.
Speaking on the topic, Dr. Ann Marie Hanlon, lead organiser of the symposium and lecturer in Popular Music at DkIT said: ‘A feminist history, or any history for that matter, of women in music in Ireland remains mostly unwritten and the question of how to conduct a feminist historiography within the Irish context needs to be addressed. Furthermore, scant statistical data exists for the Irish musical context and scholars have yet to quantify or qualify the reality of the situation for women in music in Ireland. This is the cultural and academic context within which this symposium on women in traditional and popular music in Ireland was conceived.’
The event featured a panel on women in popular music in Ireland exploring the themes of trauma, gender inequality and women’s rights across the genres of pop and electronic dance music, followed by a round table discussion on contemporary feminist initiatives in the Irish music scene.