Haim are glad they "rocked the boat" by firing their agent over gender pay disparity.
The trio – made up of sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim – sacked their manager after discovering they were paid 10 times less than one of his male clients playing the same festival bill.
Speaking at TheWrap’s Power Women’s Summit, Alana said: "We hear], ‘Don’t rock the boat’, ‘Don’t ask a question’, ‘Don’t cause a problem’.
"And I remember hearing ‘Don’t rock the boat’ for the first time and wondering, ‘Why can’t I rock the boat? I wanna rock the boat’… When you hear ‘Don’t rock the boat’ so many times you internalise it… And if you bring up a question, you’re ‘crazy.’ "
The group cut ties with their agent last year, and they were appalled to find that the gap between the acts’ paydays was so big.
Danielle added: "I think we were just in complete shock that this was still happening. And we decided that we needed a change and that’s what happened."
For Alana, the "thing that mattered most" for her in the entire situation was that both acts shared the same agent.
She added: "I don’t want to ask for more, I never want to ask for more. I just want to ask for equal."
Haim have encountered sexism a lot in their careers and find it frustrating when their musical ability is written off just because they are female.
Alana said: "What was really scary to us was feeling like if we acted a certain way, people would think we didn’t play our own instruments.
"I still get so many people asking me, ‘So who really writes your songs?’
"A lot of people automatically accept the fact that an all-male band writes their own songs, but when they see an all-woman band, they’re like, ‘Oh there must be a man behind it, fuelling their fire.’ "
Haim are glad they ‘rocked the boat’ by firing agent over gender pay gap
