BLiM calls for government action on misogyny in ‘wild west’ UK music industry

Arts advocacy organisation Black Lives in Music (BLiM) is calling on the Labour government to enact the recommendations of the Women and Equalities Committee’s Misogyny In Music Inquiry. The recommendations, which were rejected by the previous government in April 2024, offered legislative steps the government should take to protect workers in the music industry from bullying and harassment.

BliM CEO Charisse Beaumont gave evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee yesterday, alongside The Guardian’s deputy music editor Laura Snapes, soprano Lucy Cox and singer-songwriter Celeste Waite. Beaumont presented responses from BLiM’s YourSafetyYourSay survey to the committee, providing evidence for the harassment experienced by women and non-binary members of the UK music industry.

Beaumont said: ‘We have hundreds of stories from women of being harassed including sexually assaulted by male artists as well as promoters, people assaulting women in music education, participating in almost naked casting videos, young women pressured to drink and take drugs, who are then assaulted, male producers grooming young female vocalists. It’s rife in all genres, particularly classical music.’

The Women and Equalities Committee’s recommendations for action include:

• Imposing a duty on employers to protect workers from sexual harassment by third parties
• Taking ‘legislative steps’ to amend the Equality Act to ensure freelance workers have the same protections from discrimination as employees
• Extending the time limit for bringing Equality Act-based claims to an employment tribunal from three to six months
• Prohibiting the use of non-disclosure and other forms of confidentiality agreements in cases involving sexual abuse, sexual harassment or sexual misconduct, bullying or harassment, and discrimination relating to a protected characteristic

As well as calling for these recommendations to be put into action, BliM also marked the importance of the new Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority which aims to provide support for victims, as well as advising organisations sign up to BLiM’s Anti-Racist Code Of Conduct and use its EquiTrack reporting tool to combat discrimination.

Beaumont added: ‘There is a saying that the music industry is like the wild west. It is made up of thousands of organisations and there’s no accountability.’