Today is International Women’s Day which also happens to be one of our favourite days of the year. It’s a day to celebrate all of the hard work and success that females have achieved and it’s a time to promote equality for all genders. The glass ceiling is a huge issue that exists in every industry but it is especially prevalent in the music industry.
According to this article published by The New York Times, after an examination of the top 600 songs from 2012 to 2017, it was discovered that only 22.4% of the performing artists were women. The numbers for females behind the scenes were even more grim. Only 12.4% of the 2,767 songwriters credited on the analyzed songs were women and only 2% of the credited producers were women.
Gender discrepancy is also present at awards shows. The New York Times article also stated that “of the 899 individuals who have been nominated for the last six Grammy ceremonies, 90.7 percent were men and 9.3 percent were women.” Talk about crazy statistics.
When we came up with the idea of this blog, we knew that we wanted to focus on a variety of topics including music, travel, embarrassing situations we have gotten ourselves into, and photography. We also knew that we wanted to showcase women who were doing amazing things. We wanted to provide a platform to feature female artists because they don’t receive the recognition they should be receiving so we came up with the idea of having “Female Friday” which entails featuring a badass female artist each week.
We are so grateful for all of the support we have received and for being able to work with so many powerhouse women. In honour of International Women’s Day, here are all of the women we have featured on FEMME RIOT. We have also included our favourite quotes to give you some girl power inspiration.
Confidence breaks down most barriers in my experience.
Work tirelessly on your craft so that there’s no room for anyone to doubt you. Including you.
Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser (Tuvaband)
I think that it could help if there was more focus on complementing other sides of a girl than how she looks and dress. I have a feeling that a girl’s knowledge and attention about what’s going on in the world is not being complemented close to how much a girl’s look is being complemented.
You have to build opportunities for yourself and in the process be kind to the women (but really everyone) you meet a long the way.
Deep down I always believed in myself and my potential even when nobody else did.
We don’t need to adapt to society. Real truth is acknowledged by being yourself.
It’s taken me a long time to feel comfortable or feel useful in the studio. But I’m definitely at the point where I have a strong opinion and voice in regards to my own music.
My tips for all the girls out there: Adversity is the school of wisdom! Just be yourself and know the times to speak up or keep quiet.
Learning to love yourself before you let someone love you is so damn important.
It is always important to be true to yourself and not let others get in the way of your success.
Right now, I’ve never been more proud to be a woman.
We want to wish a Happy International Women’s Day to every single fab female we have worked with, anyone who is reading this, and of course all of the powerful women in our own lives. You are all badasses and you inspire us every day!
And with that we’re going to leave you with a playlist of 40 songs by all female artists. Ladies, let’s go work hard and change the world together 👊
Love,
Shayna & Shayla
The amazing cover photo for this article was illustrated by Libby VanderPloeg.
Trella – Mikaela Hamilton
Luna Shadows – Sam San Ronan
Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser (Tuvaband) – Jonas Kjølstad
LPX – Eliza Soros
Cali Rodi – Phil Ortiz
Charisma – Still from her music video for KING which was directed by Jakob Owens
So Below – Nina Jordan
LissA – Ann Kristin Brückner
Emily Vaughn – Nicole Balsamo
Samantha LaPorta – Samantha used a self-timer on her phone 👌
MONOGEM – Shervin Lainez
FEMME RIOT 