‘It’s Not the Females’ Job, It’s Everybody’s Job’: Gender-Related Experiences and Challenges in Popular Music Higher Education and the Music Industry

This chapter explores gender-related experiences and challenges in popular music higher education (PMHE) and the music industry, using data generated from interviews with graduates from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), UK. It focuses first on undergraduate classroom experiences, opportunities and working relationships; then on opportunities, networking, pay and conditions, and working relationships in the music industry. Arguing that PMHE presents an opportunity to enable students not only to navigate the music industry as it is, but also to challenge the status quo, the chapter concludes that, in both PMHE and the music industry, recognising gendered experiences and addressing gendered challenges can contribute to positive change, with strategies relating to personal resilience, gender diversity and inclusivity, networking and, most crucially, gender education.