Working Group on Diversity and Inclusion
To address the question of gender balance and equality of opportunities within the wider music community as well as within ECSA’s membership communities, boards, and CMOs, the ECSA board set up the Working Group on Gender and Equality in 2016. Today, the Working Group has evolved to address issues of diversity, harmful stereotypes, and equity altogether, always including but not limited to gender issues. To this end, it has been renamed to Diversity and Inclusion Working Group and continues to examine the music sphere in Europe, working on solutions which ECSA can apply within its own network as well.
Members of the Working Group on Diversity and Inclusion
- Natalia Vergara, Singer and songwriter (Spain)
- Elisabeth Anderson, Composer (Belgium/US)
- Aafke Romeijn, Composer and songwriter (The Netherlands)
- Albena Petrovic, Composer (Luxembourg)
- Emily Saunders, Vocalist, songwriter, composer and producer (UK)
- Zahra Mani, Composer (Austria)
- Sarah Glennane, Music supervisor (Ireland)
- Rebecca Ferguson, Singer and songwriter (UK)
- Béatrice Thiriet, Composer (France)
- Tytti Arola, Sound artist, composer and musician (Finland)
- Delphine Ciampi-Ellis, Music and soundtrack composer (France)
- Arriën Molema, Songwriter and musician (The Netherlands)
ECSA Report on Gender Equality: "Fostering Gender Equality among Music Creators”
In November 2024, ECSA published its Report on Gender Equality: "Fostering Gender Equality among Music Creators”, written in collaboration with the Working Group. Drawing on past efforts and initiatives from both within and beyond ECSA’s membership, the report provides seven recommendations for enhancing gender equality and stimulate discussions across our network.
ECSA Gender Equality Charter
In 2018, the ECSA Working
Group on Gender and Equality published the ECSA
Gender Equality Charter, a set of commitments aimed at improving the
conditions and advancement of women composers and songwriters in the music
industry. The charter is the result of
collaboration, discussion and debate among the Working Group and the community
of ECSA’s members and it is meant to inspire ECSA Member Organisations and
other stakeholders to act against the gender imbalance experienced in the music
industry today. The charter is
available in five European languages: English, French, German, Italian and
Spanish.
ECSA Gender Equality Charter - March 2019
Keychange pledge
In March 2021, ECSA took yet another step towards advocating for and ensuring gender equality by taking the Keychange pledge. Under this pledge, we committed to keep striving for a 50-50 gender balance between men and women/under-represented genders in conferences’ and seminars’ panels by 2022, as well as actively encourage ECSA members to sign up to Keychange and promote the movement nationally and internationally.
Keychange is an international gender equality campaign which invests in emerging talent whilst encouraging festivals, conferences and a growing range of music organisations and institutions to sign a pledge to include at least 50% women and under-represented genders in their programming, staffing and beyond.
Best practices
In 2017, the Working Group initiated a research on best practice examples within policies and initiatives promoting gender balance and diversity in the creative sectors. This document presents some examples of best practices implemented in projects and activities across Europe and beyond, which contribute to a higher representation and promotion of diversity in the music industry.
ECSA Expert Resource Pool on gender, diversity and inclusion
In 2020, the Working Group created a contact database to help its members and stakeholders enhance gender diversity in panel and event programming. The database counts more than 70 contacts of female and non-binary experts in EU cultural affairs and various sectors of the music business.
If you wish to request for contacts from ECSA Expert Resource Pool, please get in touch with the ECSA office at info@composeralliance.org.