Only One Woman on Stage at a Time: Tokenormativity and Gender Inequality in Music

• In Event: 3162 - Entertainment/Social Media and Inequality

Abstract

This paper considers gender inequality in the music industry at every level of gender as a social structure (Risman 2004). It does this through an analysis of individual musical preferences (Last.fm), Billboard top artists of 2016, and Coachella’s headliners from 2016 and 2017. This paper finds that the highest level of gender as a social structure, the institutional level, possesses the most gender inequality (Coachella), the lowest level, individual, displays the most equality (Last.fm), and the intermediate level, interactional/cultural level (Billboard top 100) falls somewhere in between. I deem the lack of progress of the highest level institutional stagnation. This paper also finds that groups consisting of more than one woman are most disadvantaged, but that solo women have achieved huge success almost to the point of reaching parity with men on some levels, a phenomenon that I call tokenormativity. Overall, this paper shows the need for change at the highest levels of the music industry, and that the lower levels demand this.

Author

• Amanda J. Brockman, Vanderbilt University