A newly launched PhD study, Gender and Music Industry Work: An Intersectional Investigation into How Gender Operates in Music Industry Organisations in Ireland, invites participation from current and former employees of music organisations operating in Ireland. The study is being undertaken by PhD researcher, Yvonne Kiely, at the School of Communications, Dublin City University, and is funded by the Irish Research Council.
The study aims to understand how gender operates in music organisations in Ireland, using feminist intersectional methods that consider gender, race, and class as a single, dynamic concept, with complex possibilities for the organisational realities of employees. To understand how gender operates in these music organisations, attention will be paid to the organisation’s practices and processes, as well as to the experiences of music industry professionals who work for them.
The study employs a secondary focus on caring and domestic labour in the homes of employees, so that discussions about access to resources and opportunities in music industries can be broadened to include the societal context of work in music organisations.
This study represents a first step in the study of gender and music organisations in Ireland and addresses a fundamental gap in intersectional feminist music industry research.
Research about gender and music industries from Ireland and elsewhere has primarily focussed on people who create music, resulting in an important body of knowledge that can help inform future research in underexplored areas. To date, there has been no investigation into gender and music organisations in Ireland. Globally, this topic is in its early stages of development.
Race, an intersection that is receiving increased attention by gender and music industry researchers, still does not receive adequate scrutiny within the field. Additionally, at a global level, the role of class in the lives of people working in music industries is severely under investigated by industry reports and academic research and is virtually unaccounted for by feminist music industry research.
The survey for this study is currently open for eligible participants, and is available here: https://easy-feedback.com/dcuphdmusicorgs/1730918/k3q9mF
Eligible participants who are interested in taking part in the interview stage of this study are invited to contact the principal investigator, Yvonne Kiely (yvonne.kiely3@nullmail.dcu.ie). There is also a section at the end of the survey where participants may submit their contact details for the interview stage.
Eligible participants are people who:
- Currently work, or used to work, for music industry organisations in Ireland, in paid employment with a formal employment contract,
- whose role in the organisation is/was positioned within a hierarchy of jobs, with the potential for upward mobility or decision making power over the mobility of employees,
- within an organisation in the core music industry sectors (live, publishing, recording) or within an organisation in peripheral sectors that engages directly with commercial musical works, their creators, or the people and processes involved in leveraging the commercial success of these works and their creators.
People whose sole music industry work is song writing, performance, composition, design or music production are excluded from this project. Participants must be aged 18 or over. Participants can be currently located in Ireland or abroad, as long as they satisfy the eligibility criteria.
Participants and others interested in the study are welcome to share the survey link and information about the study in their networks.
Contact Information
Questions about the study should be directed to the principal investigator, Yvonne Kiely (yvonne.kiely3@nullmail.dcu.ie)
Twitter/X: @LazerGuidedRep
About the Irish Research Council
The Irish Research Council is the national funder of excellent research across all disciplines. It invests in discovery research and in ground-breaking ideas that address major societal challenges, funding a diverse range of excellent individual researchers across all career stages. The Irish Research Council collaborates with enterprise, civil society, and with government to leverage the skills, knowledge, and talent of researchers to achieve maximum benefit for society. Established in 2012, the Irish Research Council is an associated agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and operates under the aegis of the Higher Education Authority.
Further information is available at www.research.ie, @IrishResearch, #LoveIrishResearch
