How Lights, IsKw and other women are making change in the Canadian music industry

As the Canadian music industry gathers in Vancouver to celebrate the Juno Awards this weekend, inclusion, gender parity and the #MeToomovement will undoubtedly be topicsofconversation.

In thewake of sexual misconduct allegations against EDMDJDatsikand Jacob Hoggard, the frontman of pop rock group Hedley, as well as lingering concerns over the #JunosSoMaledebate of recent years, Canada's music industry is like many other industries grappling with how to create a balanced, safe and representative workplace.

Amid the crescendo of voicesdemanding change, some say it will only happen when more women are involvedacross all aspects of the industry.

A singer calls out

One of Canada's brightest young stars,Lightshas two Juno Awards under her belt, includinga 2009 win for best new artist. After releasing her fourthstudio album,Skin & Earth, she'snominated for twoJunos this year and will perform at Sunday's broadcast gala.

Despite her success and music industry connections, she recently realizedsomething was missingand took to Twitter to find it.

"In my entire career, I've only ever worked with one female producer and I think that's a shame," Lights,born Valerie AnnePoxleitner,told CBC News before a recent sold-out Toronto concert.

Decrying the industry's lack of women behind the scenes, she said she hopes her next project can be "driven by women,"a desire that's been fuelled, in part, by her family life.

"Now that I have a daughter,I notice what's marketed to young women," she said.

"We need to re-evaluate what we market to our kids. [We need to] create interest, and create an understanding of music and of music creation and the tech side of musicand a passion for it and make them realize that that is a career path.

"If they don't see it, they don't know that they can be it."

The role model inspires

After graduatingwith honours in audio production from Toronto's Harris Institute in 2009,AllyssaRawesquickly discovered the music industry was "very much a boy's club."

The message she heard loud and clear was thatthe career she loved was a "brozone" behind the boards.

"I had long blondhair and I was 18 very eager and naive. I found out real quick that it wasn't inviting for women," Rawes said.

There's sexual misconduct,"harassment and ...just the general assumption that women don't know what we're doing," she said. "I almost quit."

Rawesstuck with it and is now sought after as a monitor technician for tours by groups like the Arkells and Alvvaysand serves as technical director and senior audio technicianat the Mod Club in Toronto.

She has also returned to her alma mater toteachdigital live sound,setting an example for a new generation of young women seeking to follow in her footsteps in audio production.

"When I started, there weren't a lot of women in the industry, so as one of the first women in the industry, I wanted to kind of lay that groundwork for the rest of the women to come in."

Next generation forging ahead

Women learning audio production a field traditionally dominated by men represent a growing demographic.At the Harris Institute in Toronto, female enrolment has increased from less than five per cent in the 1990s to between 15 and 20 per cent today.

Students are inspired by instructors like Rawes.

"[Allyssa's] a very straightforward type of person and she taught me that it's OK to be that way.It's OK to just go after what you want and pursue that," said studentHannah Wordekemper.

"You have to be in control of yourself. You have to stand up for yourself," said classmateJasleen Kaur.

"That's the only way to work through it. If you give up, then the stigma's going to last forever."

Anadvocate raises hervoice

Onstage, her voice is powerful, emotional. Offstage, Juno-nominated musician IsKw is equally vocal as anadvocate for gender parity in music.

The Cree and Dene pop singer isa board member of Women in Music Canada,the non-profit group working to establish greater gender equality in the Canadian industry.

IsKw is alsoan ambassador for Keychange,the international campaign working toward50/50 gender balance at music festivals and conferences by 2022. Four Canadian events are among the 45 worldwide that have signed on.

Recent studies have underlined the ongoing disparity in music festivaland conference lineups, for instance revealing thatwomen made up just 26 per cent of the lineups at U.K. eventsor thatan analysis of major 2017 North American festivalsfound nearly three-quarters of the featured artists were male, with just 14 per cent female (the remainder were mixed-gender acts).

"Gender parity does not mean that we are replacing the bands that we want to see. It just means that we're giving the opportunity to the voices and the bands that we might not have had access to in the past,"IsKw said.

And if female artists aren't on equal footing from the ground up, how can they reach top billing at mainstream festivals?

"It's a very long road to headline a festival. It doesn't happen like that overnight,"IsKwsaid.

"It's not just about 'Well my favourite band just happens to be a dude so why can't I go see them?'Go see whoever you want to see... but what if this other band that you don't know about over here would be your favourite band, but you don't have access to them?" she said.

"Even if you don't want to, you can't avoid hearing these conversations, which means now's the time that we can start making that change and pushing forward now that the initial awareness has begun."