ECMAs concerned by drop in number of women who applied for awards this year

The East Coast Music Association board says it is working to reach more women in the industry after seeing a drop in applications for its annual awards.

After the East Coast Music Awards were announced last week, concerns were raised that the small percentage of female winners didn't properly reflect the industry.

In total, only four of the 27 music categories — 14.8 per cent — went to women, or bands with women in them.

The nominees overall skewed heavily toward men, with some awards like album of the year, as well as best country, group, rock, and folk recordings, having only one woman, or groups with women, nominated out of five.

Michelle Robertson, an ECMA board member and the lead of the organization's awards and stages committee, said the number of women who applied this year "certainly is lower" than in the past. 

Women made up 22 per cent of award applications

The organization has been tracking the gender parity of applicants in recent years. In 2016, about 35 per cent of the applications were from acts involving women, while 50 per cent took home awards, she said.

For the past five years, the number of female applicants has been in the 35-50 per cent range, Robertson said. 

But this year, that number dropped to 22 per cent.

"It's something we're concerned over, absolutely," Robertson told Information Morning on Tuesday.

When asked about a "sunshine policy" suggested by Kimberly Sinclair of SpinCount music promotions, so the public knows who applies, Robertson said the music association began compiling such a list in 2018.

List distributed to music associations

It was distributed to music industry associations across the region and the practice has continued since.

Those lists haven't been made public, but Robertson said there has been a discussion to make that information available on its website to show "the multitude" of people who apply and to increase transparency.

Sinclair also raised questions about knowing who the 200 music industry experts who decide the nominees. 

There is gender parity between men and women on the jury, she said, and 50 per cent are international.

But when asked about other diversity measures, Robertson said there is a need to "do better" at compiling that data from both the jury and entire membership. People can expect to see more self-identification questions on the application next year.

ECMA commits to reaching out to those outside membership

Since she joined the board four years ago, Robertson said there's been an ongoing conversation around how the ECMAs can better reach out to not just women in the industry but all who are underrepresented in the association.

They have established an outreach committee who will be doing the research to make sure they're communicating not only with the current ECMA membership but also those who have never joined.

"We'd like to find out why, we'd like to do some digging as to how we can better reach them, and build stronger partnerships within our East Coast community," she said.

They have also been thinking about creating workshops offering education specifically focused on women "to help them feel more comfortable and confident" in the industry and applying for recognition.

The 2021 ECMAs are scheduled for Sydney, N.S., next year.