Few female recording engineers

[wren]

In the live world you tend to find women more often in lighting than sound. For whatever that's worth... it's not like lighting people have less gear to haul around or anything. Usually it's more and heavier cables.

Oddly, I just worked with a female lighting designer, and I think that was the first time in over three dozen shows.

I'd say about 1/3 of the lighting techs I've worked with have been female, and exactly 0% of the audio techs I've worked with (in theatre and in music) have been female.

I hope the implication came across that I considered my personal experience an anomaly. In theatre I've run across about two designers and about ten techs who were women.

I got that; I was just throwing my $0.02 in and quoting where it seemed logical.

[jhharvest]

As a curio I found this page from Bureau of Labor Statistics. Basically says that sound engineering is 16% female. Unfortunately there's no statistic for lighting techs.

[jkelly222]

That article is full of generalizations. I taught pre-school and worked with an after-school program for three years. To straight up say that boy's are more restless than girls is ridiculous. Every single child is different. What a crock. I'm not going to waste my time pointing out the rest of the bullshit in that article.

I wish there were more women in the industry. I have no idea why there are not. It's a weird industry unlike any other though. I'm sure more and more women will be stepping into the role as time goes on. There's no lack of passionate, motivated, highly intelligent women out there. If some of those women really want into the audio industry then they will get there and I hope they're given a nice warm welcome. I did have one girl in one of my classes in audio school!

This topic has inspired me. My girlfriend has expressed interest in learning to engineer. I'm going to have to start teaching her! Maybe she'll have an incredible talent for it!

[JGriffin]

Wow, zombie thread!

[TV Lenny]

I think it is pretty simple. Not as many women are as interested in audio engineering as guys. Am I implying something sexist here? Nope. Are there great women engineers? Yep.

Sure there may be other factors involved, but I think the heart of the reason is just that simple.

[chris harris]

I think that's pretty obvious. But, it's the WHY that's of interest here. And it's in the explanation of WHY that we often find sexist sentiment.
I wasn't born an audio engineer. This boils down mostly to the kinds of interests that are cultivated in boys vs. girls.
It's not sexist to acknowledge that. It's sexist to perpetuate it.

[TV Lenny]

In the past sure kids were probably more "cultivated" for interests by parents or whomever. These days kids have access to pretty much whatever they choose to learn about. I think the WHY is just as easy to understand.

My friend is a mechanic and a damn good one! She is one of the few female mechanics in the area according to her. It doesn't mean there is a conspiracy against anyone.

[chris harris]

In the past sure kids were probably more "cultivated" for interests by parents or whomever. These days kids have access to pretty much whatever they choose to learn about. I think the WHY is just as easy to understand.

Having access to much more information doesn't eliminate the influence of those who are most important to us during our most developmental phase. And, it hasn't done much to change the cultural reality that girls are encouraged in different directions than boys in our society.

My friend is a mechanic and a damn good one! She is one of the few female mechanics in the area according to her. It doesn't mean there is a conspiracy against anyone.

It's almost guaranteed that she didn't come to decide on that career wholly on her own, separate from any outside influence. She likely had a father, or grandfather, or grandMOTHER who was into auto mechanics and inspired her to have similar interests.

This is obviously not a conspiracy to keep women out of recording studios. But, it's clearly based on social biases about the encouragement provided to boys versus girls.

Here's an example: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2 ... rt-pulled/ This wasn't some fringe thing. It was being sold by JC Penny, a mainstream department store, and marketed to girls ages 7 - 13.

Here's another one from JC Penny: http://mommyish.com/childrearing/jcpenn ... s-one-581/

I don't think it's a conspiracy to intentionally hurt girls or women. But, it's a reality that very much DOES hurt girls and women.

My niece and nephew have very clear ideas about things that they consider "girl things" and things that they consider "boy things". They didn't form those opinions on their own from all the internet research they did as toddlers. Those ideas were taught to them, just like they're taught to most other boys and girls in our society.

[standup]

There's no reason women can't be great audio engineers. It's not a profession based on strength or muscle mass. Moving a fader and listening critically? That's equal opportunity.

I was curious that this thread popped up with no comment on the intended connection. Maybe the Huffingtonpost article implies that women don't persevere or try very hard? That seems like a dumb conclusion. I've met plenty of women who try harder than I do to achieve their goals. The article does not mention audio production. What's the connection to audio recording? What is it doing here? Does the article imply that "girls are dumb" or "girls are lazy", and that, to the poster, is the reason they're not in audio production?

Responses say a LOT about why there are few women in audio production. "(women don't) spend the money to buy the gear they needed even though they had plenty of money for clothes and cosmetics." Or "sneering, "god I love to watch her run." He holds his hands out in front of himself at chest level to make a jiggling motion."

Could it be that audio engineering is a 'hostile envrionment' for women? How about we all work to change that environment?

[trevord]

ok
I thought we put "women can't do (math/engineering/programming)" to rest a long time ago.
Funny how these research projects always justify societies existing prejudices.

about women and engineering
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-08/tech ... rogrammers

[Snarl 12/8]

I believe this has a great deal to do with it.

http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_p ... n_Math.cfm

Adolescent girls need to actually be encouraged to geek out on audio by someone, not just "allowed" to do it. I don't know how a bunch of mostly male, middle-aged, shut-in, nerdy audio "dudes" are going to do that without seeming creepy.

[StephanieVilla]

Ok, I'll bite and provide you a case story.

I got into engineering because I wanted to work in music. I was actually discouraged when I was younger to learn music so I don't play or write, but I was/am an avid fan because I am a loaner/geeky person that didn't have much else to turn to. So when it came time to pick my career path I knew it had to be music, and I happened upon the knowledge that the school the next city over had an audio engineering program. So, here I am.

As I was going through high school I was always encouraged to be an accountant because I was good at math. Me being the rebellious girl that didn't want to be a stereotype, I made it a point to be the opposite of what anybody told me to be. I think if I wasn't so stubborn I would have given up a long time ago in the audio engineering business. I only got my first job because I was hired by a woman who managed a dupe facility. She was also able to get me my first assistant opportunities in the studio. Before that my resume was always redirected to the person handling the hiring of receptionists. Seriously. And we are not talking about the Midwest here, I'm talking about the more open minded Northern California area. I actually had to become a full-time receptionist to hold my spot in the studio I started in so I could do assisting gigs. I've had to weasel my way in through the office jobs to get to the good stuff. It's hasn't been easy, answering phones politely does not come easy for me. A few women I have known that started off wanting to be engineers just got tired of fighting and took the easy salaried gig with health benefits so they could have a kid route. It is what it is.

So yeah, based on what I wrote I would say that societal norms have a large hand in the lack of women in our field, but I also think it has to do with it just being a male dominated industry and people using those social norms as excuses. People will hire people they feel comfortable working with, and let's face it, nerdy studio guys are not naturally comfortable around pretty girls.

Stephanie

[JGriffin]

Great post, Stephanie, and it sounds pretty spot on.

Especially that last bit.

[joelpatterson]

I am sure-- somewhere along some line- I've shared my perspective on this whole issue-- which basically casts your typical [guy] singer/songwriter or band member as some kind of cowboy/cattle rancher/race car driver/stunt man/trapeze artist-- in other words, a heroic dude, risking his life-- and it comes down to his gut-level feeling of trust in the people who are charged with setting his music in stone.

Which all comes down to silly, outmoded stereotypes based on instinct and culturalizations-- just in exactly the same way you accept Samuel L. Jackson as the platoon sergeant in an action movie, whereas if Angelina Jolie was the platoon sergeant, you might question her fitness for the task.

It's simple, outright, thoughtless, unconscious bias. "Does this girl understand about gapping spark plugs?" Or, more pointedly and revealingly: "How could this girl understand about gapping spark plugs?"

[Gregg Juke]

>>>>whereas if Angelina Jolie was the platoon sergeant, you might question her fitness for the task.<<<<No>>>>"Does this girl understand about gapping spark plugs?" Or, more pointedly and revealingly: "How could this girl understand about gapping spark plugs?"<<<<

Reminds me of My Cousin Vinny. Fun-ny...

GJ