OP-ED: Are We There Yet? The Long Walk To Gender Equality In The Australian Music Industry

At the Australian Women In Music Awards (AWMA) 2025 Conference, during the Leadership Forum, the facilitator posed a question to the audience of more than 250 participants. “Stand up if you think we will achieve gender equality in our lifetime.”

Five people stood. The silence held as the remaining seated delegates stayed firmly in their seats and looked around. Funnily enough, they weren’t frowning or looking defeated. In fact, there were smiles, even some small laughs. This was a long game and no-one expected that change would be easy or even be achieved soon. 

Rather than discourage me, this moment redoubled my hope and my certainty that real and lasting progress was being made. Because, in my mind, change is not only about observable difference in the industry itself. Change has, and always will be, about building a community of people who want to seek justice, ensure equality and work toward a future that values the contribution of all. 

Change is created when, one at a time, people resolve to keep fighting, support each other and talk about their frustrations along the way. When they resolve never to give up but to carry the fight into the next generation and the next decade. 

Indeed, when I looked at everyone seated, all aware that gender equality was not a line to be reached but a fight to be embraced, my hope soared. 

During my lifetime, working to achieve gender equality in the Australian music industry, I often experience inquiries akin to a child travelling to a promised location. ‘Are we there yet?’ or ‘Is progress being made?’ 

And I understand the human need to come to a resolution, the desire to assess progress as a marker of effort expended. But it is also not rare, unhappily, for entitled men to think that they can behave inappropriately with no real consequences. 

It can also be naïve to imply that there might be a time when we can dream of ‘drawing a line under all this gender equality activism’ and simply be treated as equal. But isn’t it unacceptably indulgent to treat change as a pill that can be swallowed so it will all politely go away? 

Australian Women In Music works year in, year out to bring detail and exposure to the way the Australian music industry understands its own problems. We lobby the government, inspire donors and supporters, stand grateful for contributions, and argue passionately for change. 

Change is courage and courage is costly, so we stand with every person and organisation who want to join us as part of the solution, as visible evidence that change happens when we join together in rage and fury to demand equality of opportunity in every corner of this music making machine we call the Australian music industry. 

I have come to understand that what we are really fighting for is not some imaginary moment where the change is complete, the work is finished, and gender inequity, sexual harassment and abuse, and unequal opportunity is a thing of the past. 

Of course we would love it if that were possible. But like our freedom and our democracy, AWMA’s mission has become about building a community of people who understand and appreciate that combating resistance and backlash is done by those of us who will not be silenced, who will not be defeated or discouraged, whose voices are heard and retained by young people coming into the industry who provide a balm to those struggling to be heard in it. 

When I hear about another entitled man who has had the presumption to use his power exploitatively I stand in solidarity with those people who call it out. 

When I hear about the resignation of the only female CEO of a major label who has been a leader in the fight against gender inequality, I go down into the frustration that plagues every single person who works for a world in which our culture shifts towards gender justice. 

In 2022, the Raising Their Voices report highlighted the fact that a key driver of sexual harm and sexual harassment is gender inequality. Gender inequality is when “unequal value is afforded to men and women and there’s an unequal distribution of power, resources and opportunity between them.” 

Five people at this year’s AWMA conference stood because they believe that discrimination and inequality can and must stop. The rest remained seated, not because they don’t, but because they think it might take a bit more time. But all of them were there, in the same room, answering the same question, fighting for the same outcome. 

AWMA’s vision is not for when, but how to gather who will continue to fight. 

If you’re not attending, if you’re not contributing, if you’re not even hearing the question and deciding whether you’ll stand or sit, we’d love to welcome you to join us next year. 

Because the fight against gender inequality is gathering pace and we want to welcome you onto the side of change.

For more information on the Australian Women In Music Awards, visit their website.