great to see juliana barwick getting a mention. beautiful music, especially ‘unt3′.

What no Sinitta on the list?

@JK – Madonna rocked my world when I was 3…the first album I ever owned was “True Blue” i still listen to it from time to time.

Patsy Cline was also a voice from my youth, she sang her sorrows so beautifully…and of course the lovely ladies from Abba, they were my childhood heroes.

this world has gone mad

Not so sure about this, girls. I always thought us women should be able to compete without recourse to special treatment or positive discrimination. This makes females look like they need special attention, which I find infuriating.

Hello, it’s International Women’s Day- if we can’t make a bit of a song and dance about how fab we are today when can we??

Sorry to have to say it, but I agree with Peter and Sadie above. I know it’s all been done with the best of intentions, and many of the articles are well put-together, but it comes across a little bit patronising and forced. Sure, run an article highlighting International Women’s Day – and tie it in with a spotlight piece on women who rock etc. – but to give over a whole issue to it is labouring the point a little.

Was it Lily Allen who said “Female is not a genre”?… And you know things are bad when you’re taking advice from her!

Nice to see Julianna Barwick getting a write up. Florine sounds incredible.

As for the whole “is this patronising debate” well yes I guess you could look at it that way. The point is thought that for years people have seen the music industry as a male dominated industry. I remember having a few arguments with people who reckoned there wasn’t that many women doing the business compared to men. One of them was a woman! I made her an all female compilation to shut her up.

You could say what I did was patronising but I made it to prove that person wrong and show them that they just hadn’t been looking. I saw it as an oppurtunity to make a kick ass compilation too!

Of course the other argument is that there are plenty of female artists in the modern music industry more than holding their own with the men folk and that this debate may be a little old fashioned.

Very telling that the Women Who Rock Our World are all OLDSTERS. Why are there no reps from the new school of riot grrrls?

This reads like something from the Guardian or Hot Press – too cosy, too knitting circle, too Ladyfest, too Womens Hour on Radio 4, too a nice cup of tea and Pro-choice. A very safe and conservative idea of what a woman’s issue should be. Sadly, it reads like it was put together by a bunch of liberal men putting forward their idea of what a womens issue should be

I don’t get why there’s a bit of a furore about there being a ‘women’s issue’ – it’s not advocating feminism in any way – it’s a bit of fun and made for some good reading on a Friday morning. Really, why would anyone be getting in a twist over it?
I enjoyed it!

Have I died and gone back to the 1970s or something? I really thought feminism had moved on from such terrible ideas as a “special women’s issue”. Nonsense! As a 20 yr old girl who loves music and movies, I dont need some old wans to layer it on with a trowel in such a heavyhanded way that women are better – I know that. But I also know that coverage and attention should be down to the MUSIC and MOVIES that are made and NOT someone’s gender.

Please revert to the normal Ticket next week.

+1 for Peter, Sadie and theharro

Considering the print media’s recent obsession with the domination of the charts by (predominantly electro-pop) women, do we really need what’s tantamount to more of the same?

It may have been done with the best intentions, but the whole enterprise is overkill. Every new single and every non-classical album is by a female act. Three of the four classical discs are female artists, and the fourth is the work of a female composer.

Music magazines regularly get criticised for resorting to this type of “list” issue, and the core article here is like some sort of ill-advised school magazine project – let’s have a meeting of minds among female journalists to talk about women in music. What’s next? Round up some emo kids to enthuse about what they like to listen to in their black bedrooms?

Albums like Blue and The Kick Inside shouldn’t be regarded as “Great Albums by Women”, but simply as Great Albums. Making such gender distinctions actually does the albums (and the artists) a disservice.

Also, while Ella Fitzgerald and Dusty Springfield get a look in, there’s a conspicuous absence of influential folkies – Anne Briggs, Sandy Denny, Linda Thompson – and, strangely, no sign of Tori Amos anywhere.

+2 for Peter, Sadie, the harro and Lily!!!

It would have been better to highlight a genre of music rather than a gender…

I find some of the negativity a bit weird. It’s just a themed edition.

Magazines do it all the time. 50% of the population are women. 50% of the people who listen to music and go to movies are women. Loads of great music is by women. So why not represent International Womens Day in this way?

Nobody complains when during the normal course of events most of Ticket’s writers are men. It’s just one day, not a feminist coup.

I want to know what David Kitt makes of all this.

I think it’s an idea that’s worth exploring. It’s only a once-off issue, not even a semi-regular thing, and the idea has potential. Sure, it would go bad if it was bootlicking the likes of Beyonce or Celine Dion or had a list of albums that go with Malano Blahniks, but instead they are trying to go for something smart here.

Let’s hope they do the same for goth come World Goth Day (May the 22nd)

The only criticism is I don’t see any good words for Siouxsie Sioux or Anja Huwe of Xmal Deutchland. But that’s probably to be expected, as you shall make no mention of the Genre That Shall Not Be Named in the mainstream music industry

I didn’t really have an opinion one way or another about doing an all female ticket, seemed a little gimmicky at the very least. But now I’m looking at album reviews and I’m wondering if there’s a male artist whose album I’d have been interested in that I won’t know about this week because someone made an editorial decision based on gender? Not a coincidence surely? Is this what sexism used to look like? John Waters is gonna have a canary.Hehe. Joe this can of worms is writhing.

In the interests of gender equality I’ll be buyng Joanna Newsom and Ry Cooder & The Chieftains this week.

I think the list of top ten singles by women is a bit compromised by the fact that nine of the ten songs were written or co-written by men. There are plenty of great female songwriters too.

When I first heard of this, I was mentally with the likes of Peter, Sadie and theharro. It just sounded patronising and tacky.

However, Tara Brady and Anna Carey both wrote interesting articles (more like this please!) and the features on Sugababes & Women Rocking Worlds are nothing worse than what is typically in the mid-pages of The Ticket these days (if I wanted to buy the Indo or watch the Late Late, I would). So, why sweat it?

Pfft, the wimmin’ folk will want the vote next [shakes head sadly about world going to hell in a handcart]

Seriously, an enjoyable issue. Kudos.

Any spotlight focussed on any contribution to the wonderful world of music creation is to be applauded. Alas, i think the whole equality thing is a little bit of a misnomer when it comes to women in music. The music executives, in my opinion. who deign who does and doesn’t get a contract/push/weight of the promo war machine focus on what’s hot and what’s not. If they can make a few shillins out of the shrill callings of macaque monkeys then you could be sure you’d be hearing their primal screams on commerical day-time radio. I’d like to think, that off the mainstream radar, records are played on merit and are not based on the gender of the artist. I do appreciate of course that i may be a little naive and am happy to be enlightened if anyone has any anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Anyway, that’s me tuppence worth. Oh, just wanted to say that i’d like to nominate Marnie Stern and Merrill from Tune-Yards to the list!

This is tokenistic and patronising, not just where female artists are concerned, but also where your female journalists are concerned. They need a “special issue” to get their views across? Come on.

Thanks everyone for your comments – apologies for the delay in putting them live. Normal service now resumed.

I hope to get Anthea, the Ticket’s acting editor, to answer some of the questions and points raised above.

As a female music-maker, I am hugely insulted by this issue. Are you saying that I need a special issue to compete with The Boys? Are you saying that I need some sort of leg-up to be able to play my music on the pitch as men? What nonsense.

It is this sort of rot which reinforces the inequality that this issue falsely sets out to amend. Very old-fashioned and out of touch put together by people who are still trying to fight a fight which was fought decades ago. As a woman, I feel you have belittled my gender and my art by doing this.

Next week: Nell McCafferty reviews the singles, Anna Carey knits a quilt about Ladyfest, Sinead Gleeson remembers more gigs from ‘89, some token bloke reviews more albums by girls and we also throw in some pics of Lady Gaga and a chart of Women Who Rocked Our World But Who Are All Over 30 And Past It.

“Or at least in areas where the prerequisite to becoming an “artist” is “must be good looking and willing to jump around scantily clad for a big audience””

this would be the same Shakira, GaGa, Beyonce etc, who perform scantily clad, who have overwhelmingly female audiences?

i wonder if these (mainly teenage/20-something) girls would have enjoyed the gig as much minus the ridiculous costumes and dancing?

Oh and would today’s Ticket not have been the perfect and timely place to celebrate Adrian Crowley’s Choice Prize win?

In the interests of equality, I think he should get to write next week’s Revolver column.

I think some of the commenters needs to lighten up.
It’s fantastic that an industry dominated by old-school male mentality has dedicated today’s Ticket to the female populace.

Having said that, whenever International Women’s Day comes around, I never think of the Arts (mainly because I always saw female musicians as equals).
I always used this day to discuss political, historical and scientific achievements – Rosa Parks, Marie Antoinette, Marie Curie (the first PERSON ever to be honored two Nobel Prizes) et cetera.

The Women Who Rocked Our World does seem slightly old-fashioned though.
I know from growing up, I was fascinated by women who took on the boys at their “own game” and beat them at it (Brody Dalle with The Distillers, Gwen Stefani with No Doubt, Kim Deal with the Pixies, Fiona Apple, Andrea Zollo with Pretty Girls Make Graves).

Nowadays, there is plenty more talented female songwriters who I feel should have been acknowledged in the article:

Feist.
Peaches.
Jemina Pearl (ex Be Your Own Pet frontwoman).
Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead).
Cat Power.
Bianca and Sierra Casady (Cocorosie).
Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls).
Florence Welch.
Liz Bougatsos (Gang Gang Dance).
Janelle Monae.
Mica Levi (Micachu).
Leila Arab (signed to the boy-centric Warp Records).
Martina Topley-Bird.
Regina Spektor.
Scout Niblett.
Lætitia Sadier (Stereolab).
Karen O.

Basically, I understand and appreciate that it was about women who rocked their lives but so many features have been focused on women of the past, it would have been nice to see more modern take on strong female artists.

@ Sinead Gleeson – You’ll be delighted to know that there are three Cocteau Twins albums prior to ‘Victorialand’ for you to investigate.

Also, was calling Joanna Newsom’s first album ‘The Milk-Eyed Meander’ a Freudian slip?

Blimey. If I thought a single newspaper supplement focusing on women – in this case in popular culture – would rock the foundations of a world built on the inequitable treatment of one gender by another, then I’d finance one myself.

I don’t know what badness a week of CDs by women can unleash and the trail of destruction that a piece on women film critics will leave, but let’s wait and see. I may sound flippant but as @unamulally says far better than I could “What’s wrong with having a women-specific issue on the weekend of International Women’s Day? I don’t know how anyone would be offended by that.”

As I said at the start of this whole affair… Last night when I went to bed, women owned 1 per cent of the world’s resources. This morning, it looks pretty much the same. I don’t agree with your politics @pedro, but am glad to see that you and quite a few others are actually prioritising the music that’s where myself, Lauren, Sinead and Anna came in and that’s where I’m going out.

Happy IWD.

I’m totally taken aback by the amount of vitriol shown towards this issue of The Ticket – while I completely understand that you’re never going to get everyone behind this idea, it is beyond me why some people see it as being ‘anti’ women or somehow belittling them.

This issue, to me, isn’t about pigeon-holing women or talking down to them, it’s about using International Women’s Day – a day for celebrating women worldwide and also for recognising that there are many inequalities that exist in our world when it comes to the treatment of women – to acknowledge the female musicians in Ireland and beyond that have inspired these writers.

This issue of the The Ticket wasn’t, to my mind, supposed to ‘cure’ the inequality in the music world and if anything an all-female issue simply showcases that there is a huge amount of inequality out there. Some people would think that focusing on women only is perpetuating this idea of women being in a separate category in the music world. I’d argue that this issue of The Ticket simply showcases the many female musicians out there who are worthy of investigation by women and men and for me it is inspiring to read about women involved in the music world (and film world – I learned a huge amount from Tara and Anna’s articles!).

If people are so offended by the idea of an article about women journalists’ favourite musicians, how the hell would they feel if the article was about sexism in the music world? Or cock rock; groupies; the sexualisation of women in rock; the lack of women on music magazines; the way women are represented in music magazines/music videos; women having to sleep with their producers to get their record advance (which happened recently to a female MC); riot grrrl? I would LOVE to see articles like this in the Ticket and I’m sure the women who write for the Ticket regularly would be interested in writing them. For me, this issue could have been different, and included more pressing or investigative articles, but seeing the reaction to a piece on ‘favourite musicians’ makes me thankful there wasn’t a hard-hitting investigation into sexism in the music industry in this issue.

What people are forgetting is that the journalists who write this issue aren’t ‘token’ journalists – for the most part they are regular writers for The Ticket. This was simply a chance for them, as women, to talk about women who inspired them and in turn inspire other women. Reading about female musicians inspires me, and I looked on this issue as a way of being inspired. Why not be inspired by other women? Do people realise that we don’t live in an ‘equal’ world and that women in the music industry are NOT treated the same as men? Take a look at the cover of music magazines, music instrument magazines, and albums; look at music videos and MTV; read the comments on articles about female musicians like Lady GaGa and compare them to male musicians in the charts; compare how women and men are represented – notice all the differences and then come back and say that the music world is an equal place.

@Kevin – I already pointed out the sub-editing errors to Anthea. As someone who owns all of the Cocteau Twins albums, I’m well aware that Victorialand isn’t their first.

@28 you totally made my day dude, best comment here!

Whatever about the wider world, I always thought that the Irish Times of all places was “on message” with gender equality. It’s one of the most powerful organisations in Ireland and – not coincidentally I would suggest – also run by two women. Are the Editor and Managing Director saying they should have done better – that The Ticket needs to make up for past failings? I don’t remember the paper ignoring any of these women musicians previously.

just wondering, with an immense body of work both collaboratively and as a solo performer over the last 15 years, why Roisin Murphy doesn’t get a look in. When I saw the cover I thought she might, Just a look on YouTube and see some of the most amazing live performances, I really enjoy ‘The Ticket’ as I’m normally off on Friday’s, Your with respect, Kathy

Thanks everyone for your comments so far. I was in an internet-free zone for most of yesterday so didn’t really get a chance to muck in.

Just to pick up on a few points which strike me as interesting.

Pedro @ 63 – I had a long think about this after our chat and the only industry sector which comes to mind where women are under-represented is live music promotion. All the main promoters in Ireland, the UK and Europe are male. I can’t think of any female promoters – and I mean at the level where you’re doing more than a handful of gigs every year – even though there are many female booking agents etc. I can’t really offer any explanation for this. However in every other area of the industry, I can think of many, many women who are a match for, if not better than, their male counterparts. In fact, if I was putting together a Dream Team for a new act, I’d happily recruit a female manager, agent, record label boss, PR, tour manager etc. Then again, I would be looking at females for this team because they were good at their job and not because they’re women. It’s down to their ability and not their gender – none of the bright sparks I know in the music industry are there because they’re men or women; they’re there because they’re damn good at their job.

Regarding the issue itself, I do agree with people saying that making the reviews all-female was a bit weird. We’ve had special issues before – Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol was a guest editor last year – but this did not impact on the reviews or listings, which are week in and week out staples of The Ticket. That said, however, it’s worth pointing out that there are 100s of new releases every week and why not concentrate on the female-fronted ones for a week? Although, as Major points out @ 67, it doesn’t quite work like that when it comes to the listings and ads – I don’t think The Ticket could survive with just female-only ads.

Kathy @ 66 – I’m with u 100%. Roisin Murphy is one of the greatest and most innovative artists this country has ever produced. One of my proudest Choice Music Prize moments was persauding her to play at the live event in 2008. To my mind, she’s a serious ommission but then, I (and you!) didn’t pick that list.

As for the comments that a special issue is the only way for women journalists to get a look in – ah, here, get real! If a female journalist comes up with the ideas and the stories and can write with verve, enthusiasm, wit, knowledge and style, she’ll get a look in. Exact same with males. Great journalists don’t need special treatment. Simple as that. In fact, I’d say The Ticket over the years and under the reign of its two editors to date, has been very open to female hacks, without having to resort to quotas or whatever.

39/40 of the posts on this blog are from blokes! most of whom seem to think that of 1/365 days emasculates them in some way!
As for getting your tits out for the boyz being some warped idea of Feminism well sister you missed the point BIG time (no pun intended).
That is NOT what we marched for…all that happened was Corporate Capitalism recognised the threat and subsumed it, as anyone who has actually read any Feminist literature as opposed to magazines will know…
So yeah!…IWD is a token gesture, as are quotas and positive discrimination…it’s just window dressing…
Try taking the boys on in any real sense cf Greenham Common or any real Political activism and you’ll find yourself banged up…..and I’m not talking about a drunken fumble after a skinful in Temple Bar…which I understand passes for romance these days…
They don’t mind if you let it all hang out get pissed and hobble about in shoes that would make Chinese foot binding look like liberation…
However I’m pleased to say the Women’s Liberation movement is going through a renaissance in US, and you know what happens when America sneezes…!

A (partial) defence of Anthea et al.

But first – you call yourself an editor, Jim (ommission; persauding – a good word nonetheless….).

The furore over the latest edition of The Ticket speaks volumes about some of the problems in Ireland today. Putting gender to one side – ‘old/aul wans/oldsters’ – are there no laws against ageism??

I’m gobsmacked by the reaction. So much so, I’m doing what I rarely do and saying something to people I don’t know.

Would people just get over themselves and stop talking nonsense about ‘quality’, ‘not helping with equality’, ‘special treatment’, ‘the need to force it’, ‘belittling my gender and my art’, women being ‘all over 30 and past it’ (bold and italics added), the supposed equality reigning in these happy days in the music industry, etc etc.

This edition of The Ticket is not going to do anything to improve women’s lives, or even to inform people about women in music, but neither does it do any harm. The reaction, for fear of repeating myself, is the scary bit.

Now I wanna do 2 things – give my view on what important women are missing; tell you where I’ve got to with filling in the names to the 27 (28 actually) faces of women.

I’m not trying to spoil anyone’s fun. Cos girls as someone once said just wanna have fun. But as an ‘oul’ feminist who’s stuck back in the 70s, I don’t think we should be having a wee competition at all for 10 CDs. We should be, dare I say it, sharing the ones we’ve already got.

So here goes:

1. Patti Smith
2. Delia Derbyshire
3. Lada Gaga
4. Lauryn Hill
5. Cheryl James and Sandra Denton (Salt ‘n’ Pepa)
6. Alison Moyet
7. Grace Jones
8. Kim Gordon
9. Could it be Sharleen Spiteri?????
10. Kathleen Hanna
11. Tina Turner
12. Chrissie Hynde
13. Aretha Franklin
14. Gillian Welch
15. Joan Armatrading
16. Sinead O’Connor
17. Bjork
18. Polly (not PJ – that’s the band name I think) Harvey
19. Dusty Springfield
20. Kate Bush
21. Joni Mitchell
22. Ella Fitzgerald
23. Kristin Hersh
24. Elizabeth Fraser
25. Just don’t know..
26. Nico
27. Deborah Harry? (or Courtney Love, jury’s out)

If anyone wants to enlighten me about the gaps in my knowledge, please feel free….

And look who’s missing ( I can hear you coming for me already):

Janis Joplin; Marianne Faithfull; Martha Wainwright; Patsy Cline; Stevie Nicks; Edith Piaf; Nina Simone; Amy Winehouse; Tammy Wynette (sorry girls, but you should’ve seen her rocking in the early 90s in London); Petula Clark; Mama Cass; Lucinda Williams; Cerys Matthews; Macy Gray; Minnie Ripperton; Roisin Murphy; Kirsty MacColl; Tracy Chapman; Dolly Parton; Joan Baez; Emmylou; Odetta; I could go on and on, but I’ve got stuff to do. (Ouch, feeling my age.)

The other things I’d like to say is that I’d disagree with Anthea’s wording on celebrating women’s cultural ‘contribution’. Somehow I think this word denotes a mere, little bit of ‘help’ (pin money idea) whereas I feel women have done much more than just contribute to a larger whole.

And – I appreciate Sinead (I think) suggesting that the age of the women selected reflects influences on the writers while growing up. I have an alternative view that we never stop growing up. So we could have had a few more young ones in there, to be fair.

And – As for those who don’t get it that art is influenced by our gender (as well as ethnicity, age – ah they get that one, place of birth, etc etc), well where do I start? I don’t think there would be the same objection to lists of Russian composers or American writers in a newspaper somehow. Not fun being a woman in Ireland these days (if it ever really was).

And – this brings me to my final point – the woman who is worried we are going back to the 70s. I personally don’t think that would be such a bad place to be. The economy was doing ok, you could smoke in cinemas, no-one had heard of HIV, Bob Dylan was still producing great music, houses were dead cheap, texting hadn’t been invented, numbers emigrating were dwindling, Dublin hadn’t been deluged with heroin, children ran free, etc. We hadn’t heard of Madonna (well only the ‘real’ one).

Sorry to be so sarcastic throughout. But Anthea et al. were trying to do something good (sorry as that also sounds patronising, A et al.).

I’m in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day if anyone fancies meeting for a pint to celebrate women’s fairly recent freedom to be in all parts of pubs. Try the snug in the Stag’s Head.

I can’t bring myself to say anything as naff as Happy Women’s Day, though.

Print this if you’re ‘ard enough.

All errors Jim, are entirely my own.

Slan go foill

Miranda @ 72 – thanks for your comment. Just one small correction – “you call yourself an editor, Jim” – er, I don’t and I can’t because I’m not. I’m simply a contributer to The Ticket like the rest of the crew and have no “editor” tag after my name. As for “print this if you’re ‘ard enough” – I don’t really understand that. We print all kinds of comments here, ones which praise us, ones which castigate us, ones which call us names. Comment is free, after all.

And so the cream of Dublin’s female music journalism talent fails to include the goddess Patti Smith among its pantheon of the twenty greatest women in music (21, Salt’n'Peppa being a duo?)!!! No Patti Smith > no Kirstin Hersh, Anna. The attack on male music critics in relation to Lady Gaga is gratuitous, Anthea. I dig her, and I’m a bloke. At least she can sit down at a piano and knock a tune out, which is more that Madonna could ever do. Nice to see Gillian Welch tokenistically representing the ‘neglected genre of country’, but what about Lucinda Williams? Christ, what about Loretta Lynn? Reminds me why I never bother buying The Irish Times anymore.

miranda @ 75 – ah, I see, thanks for clarification.

virago @ 77 – don’t you have some knitting to do?

Virago @ 79 – you dropped a stitch. Re-read Des’ comment – “the cream of Dublin’s female music journalism talent”. I don’t think he was refering to Miranda’s list.

I really enjoyed the issue and thought it was great to have something concrete to mark International Women’s Day; it also because it made a change to read articles about music – something that almost everyone can identify with – rather than just about women’s contributions to politics, which a lot of other media sources were running.

The point made by Major Alfonso – ‘I’m wondering if there’s a male artist whose album I’d have been interested in that I won’t know about this week because someone made an editorial decision based on gender?’ – was interesting, as it ties in with what I was thinking while reading the reviews of the sixteen CDs by women artists. I was wondering why I’d never heard of some of them before; while I acknowledge that there are a lot of women in the charts at the moment, I felt that this issue of the Ticket gave me the chance to read reviews of work by some lesser known artists – something I do regularly in The Ticket, but in the standard issues, women are much less well represented than men. Which may, as some commenters suggest, be because they’re not good enough, or it may be because, consciously or not, male reviewers are drawn more to male musicians / see one or two female artist reviews per issue as enough? This mighn’t be the case, but I thought it was telling that there were 16 CDs worth of music, perhaps a quarter to a third of which I would have expected to see reviewed in a standard issue of the magazine, so it was nice to see what else was out there.

And to the women commenters who feel that they don’t need a leg up, I am genuinely delighted to hear that. In day-to-day life in Ireland, most of us don’t – we have access to education, to jobs, we can work, vote, buy houses etc. However, there are still many areas of inequality that (and I don’t at all intend to sound patronizing her) may not be immediately apparent to younger women. When I was in my twenties I felt I got where I was thanks to my own hard work etc and would probably have been insulted by a suggestion that I needed ‘special’ anything because I am a woman. Now that I’m in my thirties, I can see the gender pay gap, the difficulty for women who have to juggle most of the childcare and housework with a fulltime job, and the consequent lack of women in senior positions, the high cost of childcare, the lack of workplace provision made for men who want to take a fair share of childcare etc etc. No one wants to feel that they didn’t achieve things by themselves, but we women possess the rights we now have thanks to feminism, and we need feminism or at least an awareness of the various inequalities suffered by both men and women if we’re to progress further towards equality. And I mean equality, not some kind of gynocracy, led by caricatures in dungarees!

I also feel that both journalism and music would, in the past, have been considered to be ‘boys’ clubs) so it’s great to see women excelling in both, as I think this issue proves they do. My husband (a huge music fan) bought the issue, read it, commented on a couple of the articles, but didn’t seem to have any problem with the fact that it was mainly by and about women – it was good music journalism about good music, and that’s what counts, surely?

Also, re the journalists, I have read work by all of them before in different contexts, so it’s not as if they were ‘patronized’ and just ‘given a chance’ to write for this issue. As far as I know, Anna Carey was one of the first women to review music in an Irish broadsheet (in the Tribune, back in the late nineties).

Did people really think that every single woman who ever made an album was going to be on the list? There simply wasn’t enough space and each journalist was asked what musicians influenced HER. It wasn’t supposed to be a Ticket about every female musician ever, even though people seem to be labouring under that misapprehension.

As for women being our own worst enemies, that just does women a disservice. It goes back to the old ‘one woman stands for all women; one man stands for himself’ idea….Yes, there are women who did not appreciate or ‘get’ this idea, but there are also women who are wholeheartedly behind this issue of the Ticket, myself included. Women can be our own best friends too. Were it not for women supporting each other then we wouldn’t have half of the rights we do today.

But the fact that some women and men cannot recognise the importance of acknowledging the battles fought by women in the past and the battles yet to be fought (feminism is NOT dead and can’t afford to be) speaks volumes of how much things have yet to change, not least in the music industry. It is not about reaching a ‘quota’ of women involved in all sectors of the industry, it’s about women being treated in an equal way and on an equal footing with men in ALL areas of music. eg: Until sexuality is not the ONLY thing a female musician is sold on (or thinks she has to sell herself on) then things will not be equal…..and until music magazines are removed from the ‘men’s interest’ section in Eason….and female performers do not have to hear sexist guff when performing (myself & a female friend were once asked numerous times ‘when are you going to lapdance for us?’)…until people recognise sexism exists and inequality exists and stop burying their heads in the sand.

Happy International Women’s Day to you all.

@Patrick thanks! Glad guys notice this too – magazines are neatly divided into such stereotypical gender lines. I know that obviously most magazines are targeted at men or women but I believe that it’s a chicken-or-egg situation.
For eg: If you’re a guy into yoga and the yoga magazines are next to specifically-aimed-at-mums parenting/diet/fitness/celeb magazines, you may not a) see the mag or b) pick it up because you feel it’s not aimed at you.
So the mag continues to be bought mainly by women, the research the mag does confirms that, and it continues to be marketed at women. Same goes for music mags.
I actually emailed Eason asking why their music mags are in the ‘men’s interest’ section and they said it was because research shows that mainly it’s men who buy the magazines. Eh, maybe that’s because of the fact they’re in a section market ‘men’s interest’, often near the ‘lads’ mags’ with busty page 3 types on the cover?!

I figure whether you’re into kittens & weeping or music or photography you shouldn’t be told you have to be a man or a woman to read about it. But like I said, chicken & egg.

(I’ll reserve my 10,000 word post on lads’ mags for a future day – but will say if Tower Records would sort out their magazine section I’d be delighted – having to get past three men reading ‘Nude Babes Weekly’ so I can pick up the New Yorker, etc, is just not cool.)

Wow. Its great to see such a diverse debate about women and music/cinema/arts. Some great posts (and some funny ones too)

I can see why some people question the whole idea. Perhaps separating the gals from the guys serves to create a ‘them and us’ feeling which isnt healthy. For instance, I believe the whole idea of separating boys and girls in schools makes it very difficult for some men and women to relate to each other when they are older. This feeds discrimination, and feelings of being discriminated against leading to exaggeration of the differences between the sexes and inevitable stereotyping.

Yet on the other hand, surely it is healthy to discuss the tendencies of men and women and question whether it is because of nature or nurture.

Overall, I think it is wonderful that you have chosen to celebrate International Womens Day in this way. The day has gone without much recognition in recent years, and why not celebrate the achievements of the women folk, if only just once a year.

Ciaran @ 37. If you were talking about 10-15 years ago, I might agree with you on some points. But I find myself at gigs (even indie ones) and sometimes there are more women than men. It depends on the music or the themes of the music (and films). Things have changed.

Also, as a female music lover, I can assure you that, as girls we learnt alot about music. Girls were encouraged to participate in school choirs bands and performances. Also piano classes often attract more girls than boys for some reason. And traditional music is afloat with many female performers. All this training is as powerful a background for a young woman who wishes to make a living from music, as is going along to Waltons and tinkering in that fantastic world of musical instruments and technology. I find the people who mix these backgrounds to be the most interesting and inspiring, ( both male and female).

I acknowledge alot of women like pop music. But I find myself in recent years veering towards a more gentle music, and wonder is that because, this yin-influence has come about possibly thanks to feminism? There is also less pressure on men to be macho, and thus it is hard to know if this gentle music was initiated by women, or men who felt tired of being stereotyped themselves.

Finally, find myself liking alot of music where men and women collaborate together, and I think that could also be celebrated in an issue on its own

Hesita – much as I love my readers, I would have to argue that there is just as much “hackneyed, cliched whimsy” and “banal nostalgia” above as there is anywhere else.

Some of the comments from Ticket readers about this issue are hillarious and confirm what badbirdwatcher described as a demand for “some kind of gynocracy, led by caricatures in dungarees”.

I didn’t drop a stitch becos I don’t knit… NIT…but C U dropped a bollock (or do you suffer from hypogonadism?) Didn’t U have the balls to print the hardcore reply…? Mo Mowlam’s’cocks off the table’ quote was deemed suitable for BBC and the IWD anecdote was true and an excellent example of irony…semens OTR/readers can’t stomach a little fem agitprop…But I’ll knit you a little willy warmer if you like, shouldn’t take long…Kurt talks of ‘Teen Spirit’, Mr Misogynist Poet who couldn’t stomach the smell of his wife’s menstrual blood talked of the ‘fetid smell of womanhood’…Women talk about these things…Wot’s wrong aren’t you ‘ard enough? The mesage is don’t make trite sexist comments! Got it?

Hmmm, the etymology of Virago lies in the Latin word virilis, meaning “manly” or “masculine”!

Now, far be it for me to even think of suggesting “willy envy” on this most presitigious day of days! Rather, I suspect that this is all part of someone enjoying a bit of a wind-up here!

JD @ 94 – hence my last remark above!

Virago – have a nice cup of tea and a liedown – you’ll feel better afterwards