Mothering: the epicentre of gender gapping??

What is gender gapping? We know of the gender pay gap, however, what factors are at the heart of this gap and other gender-based gaps in music? Systemic male domination, white supremacy and broadly, a music industry designed by white males within a society built upon a foundation of inequality should present no drastic surprise to our ‘still poor’ gender balance in UK music and beyond. There are gaps that relate to the space and time that women devote to child rearing and gaps that are apparent when considering the representation of women (versus men) in the music industries. Such ‘gender gapping’ can be used as a conceptual framework to discuss gender inequality in our music industries today. These gaps live not in isolation but as a connected system in which ‘mothering’ should be considered a key area of concern. In my recent PhD research on mothering and freelance music-making in Scotland, the theme of ‘sacred spaces’ emerged. Creative mental and liminal spaces were identified as ‘crucial’ to the participants. Music-making mothers presented a sense of struggle and juggle to actively participate in the music industries without it. Thus, what is it about the current music industries ‘structures’ that limits women’s participation and what support is available to truly promote and enable gender equality for the future?