Women and Sexism in the Rock and Metal Industry

Women and Sexism in the Rock and Metal Industry event is a joint collaboration between the University of Birmingham Rock Society and Women’s Association in light of National Women’s History month. We will be looking at how women are presented in the rock and metal music industry, in terms of female fronted bands or lack of, women behind the scenes and also sexual harassment at gigs.

 The event will be a series of short talks and presentations from a number of guest speakers, such as music academics Dr Asya Draganova and Jasmine Shadrack, members of progressive groove metal band Aramantus, current student and writer Rosie Solomon, the Not On Campaign and the organiser and President of the Rock Society, Anna Pitts.

There hasn’t been an event of this kind done before by the Rock Society and as the first female president of the society in a long time I felt responsible to raise awareness of these issues that affect women in the industry. I came up with the idea for this event as I’m very passionate about the topic of women and sexism within the rock and metal genre and I feel that these issues are rarely discussed. Also, I had spoken to a lot of female students who had experienced these issues at gigs and it becomes a norm to just brush off sexual harassment in this environment which is not right.

 I’ve chosen to collect donations for RSVP as it is a charity that is directly relevant to helping people who have experienced sexual harassment, assault and rape such as we will be discussing at the event, in the context of music gigs and festivals. Also, the work the charity does is so vital and I thought it was important to raise awareness of the support available and to reduce the stigma around speaking out about the issue of sexual assault which was one of the main reasons for organising the event. Finally, as RSVP is a local charity I wanted the event to give back and help our local community in Birmingham, especially with the recent targeting and sexual assault of female students around the Selly Oak area.

 The event will be taking place on Saturday 18th March, 6-8pm in the Rosa Parks room of the Guild of Students at University of Birmingham.  Find out more at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1420530174687167/