Towards a sustainable career for parents in the music industry

The shesaid.so parenthood committee hears our community’s needs

Being a parent is a huge and overwhelming responsibility, honour, challenge, joy and never-ending learning curve in any circumstances. Throw in a hectic and sometimes ruthless music industry career, and it’s a wonder anyone even attempts the two together.

Cue the shesaid.so parenthood committee.

The shesaid.so parenthood committee was formed to support parents of all genders in the music industry. Having already collaborated on panels including the Fam Jam Session at BreakOut West (rewatch the panel here), as well as growing the global community of parents and local chapter ambassadors, the committee’s objective is to provide a supportive and open platform to empower parents in the music industry.

Last month the committee took over the shesaid.so global Instagram account to ask: what is it really like to be a parent in the music industry and what more should we be doing to support an inclusive and sustainable music industry for parents?

One respondent summed it up in four words:

“The struggle is real.”

It’s clear that others face this struggle too. When asked who they relied on for support, responses ranged from “nobody” to multiple accounts of people’s family travelling cross-country to support.

Some of the other challenges that came out of the responses included: “freelancers having unpaid maternity leave”, “lack of support; flexible working, childcare, parental leave”, “when you are single and a parent you have to handle both, parenthood and a career”, and how to “pay the bills and support their family”.

One particular response reflected on the attitude towards parents from others: “as a mum and a manager being respected by the industry for your skills and achievements”.

In answer to the question; ‘Have you ever felt having children would hinder your career?’, 92% responded yes.*

Others voiced specific concerns about the difficulties of going freelance and the risk to their career.

With regards to experiencing discrimination, over half the respondents said they had faced discrimination at work.*

Moreover, under half of respondents had shared parental leave available at work.

It is for exactly these reasons that the shesaid.so parenthood committee wants to make a difference and inspire change.

Their mission centres around education, awareness and campaigning for fairer and more flexible policies for parents.

Some of the committee’s aims include:

• Normalise being a parent in the industry.
• Raise awareness of the unique challenges of being a parent as an artist or industry professional in the music industry, and in addition, the experience of gender minority parents.
• Develop a network of allies who may be working with or alongside parents in the music industry.
• Use parents’ experiences to pioneer a better industry for all.
• Encourage opportunities for research and data collection with respect to parents in the music industry, to inform the implementation of action and change.
• Campaign for change to provide fairer parental leave and flexibility.

So how can companies and organisations as well as individuals help to be more inclusive of parents?

From the survey, 91% of respondents considered themselves an ally to parents in the industry,* but do we see this translating into the experience of parents themselves?

As an initial step, everyone can make a start by understanding the impact of asking offensive questions such as:

- Don’t you worry it will affect your career progression?

- How are you going to manage? Who’s going to be with the kids?

- Where are your kids today?

- Do you feel that you neglect your kids?

And if you are in a position to affect policy at work, a recurring word in the feedback was ‘flexibility’. Some specific ideas included:

- More flexibility for start/end times, work from home and holiday

- Making it easier for parents to pick up their careers from where they left off before parental leave

- Better planning and equality for all genders

- Make events more inclusive for the attendance of kids

- More flexibility and sociable working hours, more government support for self employed

You can also become an ALLIES member of shesaid.so, either as an individual or an organisation. Find out more about ALLIES membership here.

*All questions had between 18 and 50 responses.

The shesaid.so parenthood committee is a community of parents within shesaid.so, formed to support and hear the voices of parents of all genders who are members or allies of shesaid.so. The committee’s objective is to provide a supportive and open platform to empower parents in the music industry, through sharing experiences and ideas, thus working towards a more accessible and sustainable music industry for parents. With intersectionality, diversity and inclusion being core values of the organisation, we hope to increase equality for all parents in the music industry.

Join the Facebook group here.

Or email: parents@shesaid.so