SoundGirls is a professional advocacy organization aiming to empower women working in the audio industry. It was co-founded in 2013 by

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. One of the key bands in the grunge, grunge movement of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam has outsold and outlasted many of its contemporaries from the early 1990s, ...

’s

monitor engineer Live sound mixing is the blending of multiple sound sources by an audio engineer using a mixing console or software. Sounds that are mixed include those from instruments and voices which are picked up by microphones (for drum kit, lead vocals an ...

Karrie Keyes Karrie Keyes is an American audio engineer and the executive director of SoundGirls, a non-profit organization that supports women in the sound industry. She has been the monitor engineer for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder for over 25 years and has ...

, and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato,

Front of house In the performing arts, the front of house (FOH) is the part of a performance venue that is open to the public. In theatres and live music venues, it consists of the auditorium, and foyers, as opposed to the front stage and backstage areas. ...

mixer for

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; ; lit. "Shuddering"), also called the River Styx, is a goddess and one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld. Her parents were the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and she was the wife of the Titan Pallas and the moth ...

, Mr. Big and

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

. The organization's mission is "empowering the next generation of women in audio" and increasing the number of women in the workforce, which is currently under 5% in some disciplines of the industry (like music production). Keyes and Sabolchick met when they were on a panel together at the 2012 AES Convention in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the

Women's Audio Mission Women's Audio Mission is a non-profit organization and recording studio complex based in San Francisco and Oakland, California, whose mission is to promote "the advancement of women and gender-diverse people in music production and the recording a ...

called "Women of Professional Concert Sound" and was moderated by Terri Winston, the founder of Women's Audio Mission. Since then, SoundGirls has grown to over 6,000 members and has several chapters worldwide. The organization assists with mentorships, job placement, workshops, and scholarships. The organization is inclusive of all genders and non-conforming genders. Keyes is currently the executive director and runs the organization on a daily basis.

History

In 2015, SoundGirls started holding live sound camps in the summer for girls. These events have been held in California, New York, Philadelphia, and St Louis. The soundgirls website features profiles of women working in different sectors of the music and audio industry. In 2018, SoundGirls teamed up with

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

to create the EQL Directory, an international database for women working in audio and music production. They have also partnered with the SoundGym audio training organisation, to offer subscriptions to women training in audio. In 2020, the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

left thousands of SoundGirls members unemployed when live events were canceled, with the potential for being out of work for years. In response, they created the SoundGirls Coronavirus Relief Fund to aid production techs worldwide who were out of work. SoundGirls also started a podcast in 2020, hosted by Beckie Campbell and Susan Williams. Interviews have included award-winning recording engineer Leslie Ann-Jones,

Tana Douglas Tana Douglas is an Australian author who is best known as the first female rock and roll roadie. Career Douglas began her career at 15 as a roadie after assisting French high-wire artist Philippe Petit when he walked between pylons on the Sydne ...

(the touring industry's first female roadie),

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's live broadcast engineer Alexandria Perryman, Ann Mincieli, Mary Mazurek, and Jeri Palumbo. SoundGirls also created the SoundGirls Living History project, an oral history project with audio industry veterans to discuss their careers.

References

External links

* {{Cite web , title=The EQL Directory , url=https://makeiteql.com/ , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116143525/https://makeiteql.com/ , url-status=usurped , archive-date=16 November 2018 Women in music Women's organizations based in the United States Music organizations based in the United States Arts organizations established in 2013 2013 establishments in the United States