Conversations in Berlin: Discourse on Gender, Equilibrium, and Empowerment in Audio Production

Statistics documenting gender diversity in music and audio production have shown audio domains to be overwhelmingly white and cis male across a range of audio industry sectors (Born & Devine, 2015; Dobson, 2018; Gavanas & Reitsamer, 2013; Smith, Choueiti, & Pieper, 2018, female:pressures’ facts survey 1 ). This situation can reinforce assumptions that associate masculinity and technology (Leonard, 2017), where women are believed to understand less while simultaneously being subjected to a higher standard – to a kind of ‘super-surveillance’ (Puwar, 2004: 92). Drawing from a series of 18 interviews conducted with Berlin-based womxn 2 (Gourd, 2018) music producers, this chapter explores some of the ways in which this male and homogenous space becomes a complex terrain for women.