Annie Mac says women shouldn’t feel "pressured to rise up to levels of testosterone" to get their "point heard".
The BBC Radio 1 DJ hosted a panel discussing gender inequality at her AMP London Conference Day at the Moth Club in Hackney, London on Friday (29.03.19), where she was joined by industry folk, including NME editor Charlie Gunn and Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis.
They each discussed their experiences as females in the male-dominated industry, with the chat entitled ‘Where Are All The Female Bosses?’, and Annie recalled a conversation she had with Wolf Alice frontwoman Ellie Rowsell about how she shouldn’t have to "shout" to be heard.
Annie – who recently teamed up with Smirnoff and the PRS Foundation’s Keychange to take charge of their Equalising Music campaign – said: "I remember interviewing Wolf Alice and I remember her saying ‘I don’t want to have to speak in the language of men.
"I don’t want to have to shout, maybe I want to whisper, and I still want to get my voice heard, I think that should be OK.’
"I think that’s a really interesting conversation the idea of women feeling pressured to rise up to levels of testosterone to get your point heard.
"Wouldn’t it be nice if we can all sit round and have a cup of tea and make massive decisions."
Meanwhile, Emily – who curates the Glastonbury line-up with her father Michael Eavis – also opened up about the lack of female headliners at festivals and admitted the problem is that there isn’t a "big enough pool of artists at that level" altogether, whilst she highlighted how important it is that a "conscious effort" is made to "push the women through".
She said: "There aren’t enough female headliners, there isn’t a big enough pool of artists at that level.
"We’re having to try and get people out of retirement in order to play.
"My dad keeps going ‘what about the chaps’!
"There aren’t that many blokes coming through either, but we need to make a conscious effort to push the women through.
"We love taking not obvious headliners and putting them on the Pyramid stages, but we don’t have enough -we need more women to choose from."
AMP London took place over four-days in the British capital and included industry panels and performances from the likes of Sam Fender, Mahalia and Two Door Cinema Club.
Annie Mac tackles gender inequality at AMP London Conference
