About DJ Academy for Girls
This is where we tell the story that’s behind our movement…
“He performed his set just before me, and when it was clear that the audience was more hyped during my set, he came to ask me if I was doneeven though I was just getting started”
Now, we hate to break it to you, but these were the words of one of our DJ talents. She was asked to collaborate on a set with a fellow DJ( male DJ-just for the context you know-), and as you can see he tried to dodge her off the stage, an act that she dodged back and went on with her performance. This example is in no way a generalized comparison of who’s better than who, and before a “not-all-men” argument comes to mind, we are putting a stance to denounce the gender gap that continues to be a very real thing, whether that be in offices or more dynamic industries like arts and entertainment. Either in the MENA region or anywhere else in the world, it’s still here and it still represents one of the top challenges females have to face routinely.
In the Electronic Music scene, the stereotypes are that technology is attributed to masculinity and gender roles and that the term “girly mixes” exists. What does this say about the industry?
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The lack of female DJs attendance and male dominance led to a remarkable underrepresentation of females in the Electronic Music industry. We need to advocate for a drastic change in hiring policies and a shift in mindsets to build a future pipeline.
The question we, at La Fabrique Art Studio, asked ourselves is: How can we proceed to boost the visibility and the participation of women in Electronic Music?
What needs to be ingrained in the industry is diversity and equality of opportunities. More work should be done to create a safe space for females and non-binary people in the Electronic Music picture. This includes granting them access to creative spaces that offer them not only the chance to discuss what’s happening but most importantly the necessary workshops to sharpen their skill sets in music production.
Our goal is to promote the female and cultural minorities participation in the DJing scene in the MENA region, therefore, through our program DJ Academy for Girls, we aspire to be the structure where they feel represented, respected, and their experiences are understood, for us to render the presence and visibility of female DJs more robust to dismantle the stereotypes. Also, we aim to prepare the next generation of female DJs, sound engineers, sound designers, producers, etc… We believe that the key to structural change is creating a sustainable cycle of professionalized empowered women empowering and mentoring their fellow newcomers to the industry.
Inequality is not just a gender issue. It affects people from different ethnicities, economic classes, origins, and so on. We look forward to a future industry where people can strive to achieve goals regardless of gender, and where women can be producers, DJs, all kinds of artists just as well as men.
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